Context: 

The recent heavy rainfall across the entire North Indian belt has unleashed mayhem in many states.

Trend of Monsoon in 2023

• Delay Onset: Southwest monsoon has hit the Kerala coast on June 8, delaying significantly by 7 days.
• Normal date of the onset of the monsoon over the Kerala coast is June 1.
• Extreme rainfall event: It resulted in large-scale flooding, destruction and loss of lives.
• Heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh has claimed 30 lives till now.
• Financial Loss: State has also seen loss to infrastructure with an initial estimated between ₹3000 crore to ₹4000 crore.
• Landslides: According to the Himachal Pradesh emergency operation centre, fourteen major landslides and 13 flash floods have been reported in the past 36 hours while over 700 roads have been closed.

Factors for Landslides

• It was caused by incessant rains that have been reported from various regions in Himalayan region.
• When heavy rains meet “undesirable, unpragmatic, unplanned structural intervention on the fragile landscape of hills”, it can cause landslides.
• Deforestation for public and private infrastructure projects leaves the soil weak and vulnerable to spate of water coming from a higher level.
• Other Factors for Landslides: Geological weakness of the soil, lack of vegetation and prolonged human pressure  are the major factors for the landslide.
• Monsoon Variability: According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), on July 9, there was 59% excess rainfall over northwest India; 4% excess over central India; 23% deficiency over peninsular India and 17% deficiency over east and northeast India.
• El Nino: It is the warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that impacts weather events worldwide.It is likely to develop earlier than expected and has the effect of suppressing the Indian monsoon rainfall.

Factors Leading to Monsoon Mayhem

• Interaction of Monsoon with Western Disturbance: According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), heavy rain in parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand is due to the interaction of the monsoonal winds with the western disturbance that has created a trough above Himachal Pradesh.  

Image Source:  India Today

• Cyclone:  Cyclones in the North Indian Ocean have had both positive and negative impacts on the onset of the monsoon.
  Example: If a cyclone lies further north in the Bay of Bengal, the back-winds blowing from the southwest to the northeast can pull the monsoon trough forward, and assist in the monsoon’s onset.Mocha cyclone helped the monsoon set in on time over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.On the other hand, Cyclone Biparjoy led to delay in the arrival of the monsoon over Mumbai by nearly two weeks.
• Orographic lifting: Some regions of India has witnessed orographic rainfall.Due to global warming, there’s extra moisture, and the hills stop this moisture flow and lift it, which comes down as heavy rains.
• Climate Change: Impact of global warming on the monsoons are manifest in the onset, withdrawal, its seasonal total rainfall, and its extremes.
  For Example, Global warming also affects the cyclones over the Indian Ocean and the typhoons over the northwestern Pacific Ocean.Climate change is making the seasonal rains more intense, longer lasting and more unpredictable.
• Ocean Warming: Monsoon course is affected by the three tropical oceans – Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific; the ‘atmospheric bridge’ from the Arctic; and the oceanic tunnel as well as the atmospheric bridge from the Southern Ocean.
• A ‘bridge’ refers to two faraway regions interacting in the atmosphere while a ‘tunnel’ refers to two remote oceanic regions connecting within the ocean.
• Marine heatwave in India’s eastern sea is causing extreme rain in its northwest.
  For Example-A warmer Bay of Bengal is likely playing a role in increasing faster timescale depressions and reducing slower timescale depressions In 2023, a warmer-than-usual Bay of Bengal has already experienced 
• Unsustainable Exploitation: From the mega road expansion project in the name of national security (Char Dham Highway) to building cascading hydroelectric power projects, from unplanned expansion of towns to unsustainable tourism, the Indian States have ignored warnings about the fragile ecology.

Way Forward

• Adaptability: Avoiding the development of large hydroelectric projects in the sensitive area.
• Higher Himalayas are sensitive to changes in climate and tectonic activity, large hydroelectric projects should ideally not be built there or should only have a minimal capacity.
• Scientific methods for construction: All scientific methods should be used when building roads.
• At this time, slope stability, high-quality retaining walls, and rock bolting are not being used when building or widening roadways. All of these actions can limit the harm caused by landslides to some extent.
• Community Involvement in Development: Flash floods, cloudbursts, and landslides are common natural disasters in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand.A halt to hydropower development has been demanded by the local populace.
• Capacity Building: Capacity and efficacy of the drainage system have to be periodically assessed and augmented by local municipality.
• Unified Effort:  It is imperative for the local administration, the State Disaster Response Force and the National Disaster Response Force to work in close coordination and mitigate the devastating effect of excessive rain.

News Source:  The Hindu

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Recently, the Union Government has released the operational guidelines for the management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), acknowledging the increasing burden of such diseases as the country’s population continues to grow. 

• This emphasizes the need for palliative care services to individuals affected by NCDs.

About Palliative Care:

• Palliative care is a specialised branch of medicine that focuses on enhancing the quality of life and alleviating suffering for individuals with life-limiting illnesses. 
• Approach:
  • Comprehensive approach: Improve patients’ well-being by addressing their physical, psychological, spiritual, and social needs. 
  • Proportional actions: Prevent over-medicalization and the financial burden on families while prioritising quality of life. 
  • Counselling support: Provides support to families and caregivers, including bereavement support after the patient’s death.
• Applicability: Heart failure, kidney failure, certain neurological diseases, cancer, etc. 

Need for Palliative Care In India:

• Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases: Diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and respiratory diseases have seen a steep rise in prevalence.
• High Cancer Incidence: With nearly 1.4 million people diagnosed with cancer in India each year, there is a substantial need for palliative care services.
• Addressing Rural Healthcare Needs: Two-thirds of India’s population resides in rural areas, where access to healthcare services, including palliative care, can be limited. 

Existing Program for Palliative Care:

• National Programme for Prevention & Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD):
  • NP-NCD was launched in 2010 to address the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
  • Originally called NPCDCS, it aimed to provide promotive, preventive, and curative care for chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and stroke.
  • In an ideal scenario, palliative care should take over curative care for advanced-stage diseases.

Gaps in the Revised NP-NCD Guidelines:

• Limited Focus on Non-Cancer Illnesses:
  • The guidelines mention palliative care mainly in relation to cancer, overlooking the higher need for palliative care in non-cancer illnesses.
  • The Global Atlas of Palliative Care in 2020 emphasised the broader scope of palliative care beyond cancer.
• Exclusion of Chronic and Debilitating Conditions:
  • In the previous operational guidelines (2013-2017), chronic and debilitating conditions were included under palliative care.
  • The revised guidelines fail to encompass these conditions, narrowing the scope of palliative care.
• Lack of Emphasis on Home-Based Care:
  • The previous guidelines acknowledged the importance of home-based palliative care services.
  • The revised guidelines overlook home-based care, with palliative care delivery starting only from the district hospital.
• Inadequate Delivery at Primary Healthcare Level:
  • Palliative care service delivery in the revised guidelines starts only from the district hospital, bypassing the health and wellness center and sub-center levels.
• Gaps in the Implementation of the NPPC:
  • The guidelines highlight the linkage of 11 programs to promote the convergence of services for non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
  • One of these programs is the National Programme for Palliative Care (NPPC).
    • The NPPC was announced in 2012 with the aim of enhancing palliative care services.
  • However, the program has faced challenges due to the lack of a dedicated budget and awareness.
• Measurement of Access:
  • Narrow Indicator Focus: The chosen indicator in the guidelines assesses access based on morphine-equivalent consumption of strong opioid analgesics per death from cancer, which may not reflect the full coverage of palliative care services.
  • World Health Organisation Recommendation: The World Health Organisation suggests using morphine consumption per capita as a broader indicator to assess morphine access and compare progress across countries.

Challenges to Palliative Care:

• Limited Accessibility: It has largely been available at tertiary healthcare facilities in urban areas. 
  • Due to this skewed availability of services, it is accessible to only 1-2% of the estimated 7-10 million people who require it in the country.
• Poor Implementation: Despite the presence of government programs like the National Programme for Healthcare of Elderly, access to palliative care remains inadequate.
• Role of NGOs: NGOs such as Pallium India, Karunashraya, and CanSupport try to fill the gap but face limitations due to resource constraints compared to the government.
• Neglected Pediatric Palliative Care: The guidelines primarily focus on cancer, overlooking the urgent need for palliative care for children with various chronic diseases.

Way Forward:

• World Health Assembly Resolution: Implement the 2014 World Health Assembly Resolution 67.19 on Palliative care by integrating palliative care into national health policies.
• Strengthening Healthcare Infrastructure: There is a need to invest in building robust palliative care services at the grassroots level, ensuring that quality care is accessible to all individuals in need.
• Training and Education: Providing specialized training programs to healthcare professionals in palliative care will help address the shortage of trained personnel and enhance the delivery of services.
• Access to Essential Medications: Facilitating improved access to opioids and other essential medications for pain management is crucial for effective palliative care.
• Collaboration and Integration: Strengthening collaboration between healthcare professionals, specialists, and palliative care teams can ensure a coordinated approach to patient care and the continuity of support.
• Public Awareness and Acceptance: Promoting awareness and acceptance of death as a natural part of life can help foster a more compassionate and supportive environment for palliative care.
• Rehabilitation and Social Support: Recognizing the holistic needs of patients and their families, integrating rehabilitation and social support services within palliative care programs can enhance overall well-being.

News Source: The Hindu

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Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation will inaugurate a day-long mega conclave “Strengthening PACS through FPOs” in New Delhi on July 14, 2023. 

More on News:

• The mega conclave is being organised by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Cooperation.
• The conclave is aimed at discussing ways to strengthen Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).

About Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS):

• PACS are village-level cooperative credit societies.
•  They serve as the last link in a three-tier cooperative credit structure headed by the State Cooperative Banks (SCB) at the state level. 
• The PACS have around 13 crore farmers who are primarily engaged in short-term credit and distribution of seeds, fertilisers, etc.

Functioning of PACS:

• Credit from the SCBs is transferred to the District Central Cooperative Banks, or DCCBs, that operate at the district level. 
• The DCCBs work with PACS, which deal directly with farmers.
• Since these are cooperative bodies, individual farmers are members of the PACS, and office-bearers are elected from within them. 

Concern:

• Political Influence: Political compulsions often trump financial discipline, and the recovery of loans is hit.
• Limited Spread in North-East: Though geographically active PACS cover about 90% of 5.8 villages, there are parts of the country, especially in the north-east, where this coverage is very low.
• Inadequate Resources: The resources of the PACS are much too inadequate in relation to the short-and medium-term credit needs of the rural economy.

Significance:

• Last Mile Connectivity: They offer last mile connectivity to farmers in disbursing credit.
• Hassle Free Loans: PACS have the capacity to extend credit with minimal paperwork within a short time.

News Source: PIB

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Context: 

Leaders of the Solomon Islands and China promised to expand relations that have fuelled unease in the U.S and Australia about China’s influence in the South Pacific.

Image Source: BBC

More on News:

• Both countries upgraded their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
• The Solomon Islands signed a secretive security agreement with Beijing that might have allowed Chinese military forces in the South Pacific.
• China is planning to expand relations and trade through its Belt and Road Initiative to build ports and other infrastructure from the Pacific across Asia and Africa.

Concerns of USA and Australia 

• China had signed a wide-ranging security pact with the Solomon Islands in 2022. 
• It might allow China to post troops in the Pacific nation. The USA fears that it could be a Chinese military base in the strategically located archipelago.
• Improving relations with China shows an increasingly tense geopolitical battle between China and the United States as they seek to gain influence among the Pacific nations.

Attempt to dominate Pacific Island countries 

• The USA announced plans to reopen an American Embassy in the Solomon Islands.
• Biden convened a summit of Pacific Island leaders to unveil a strategy that included cooperation in climate change, maritime security and preventing overfishing.
• Biden promised $810 million in new aid for Pacific Island nations over the next decade, including $130 million to address the effects of climate change.

News Source: The Hindu

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Recently, the Prime Minister appreciated the role of Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) in transforming India’s logistics sector.

About ULIP:

• It is an API based platform for data exchange between the stakeholders for enabling innovative approaches in improving India’s Logistics sector.
• It was launched in 2022 as a part of the National Logistics Policy (NLP).
• It will provide real-time monitoring of cargo movement and enhance efficiency and reducing the cost of logistics in India 
• ULIP brings all the digital data related to the transportation sector into a single portal

Objectives:

• To create a nationwide single window logistics platform for end-to-end visibility.
• To develop a logistics gateway by integrating information available with various Govt. agencies across the value chain.
• To provide visibility for optimal usage of various modes of transportation.

Components

• Integration with existing data sources of ministries
• Data exchange with private players
• Unified document reference in the supply chain

Benefits of ULIP:

A) To Government:

• Planning: Support Govt. as a planning tool for prioritising and building logistics infrastructure.
• Effective & Transparent: Robust information and process structure to improve international competitiveness.
• Ease Of Doing Business: Support inter-ministry / inter-agency collaborations, promoting ease-of-doing-business.

B) To Service Providers, Shippers, Transporters:

• Simplification: Support stakeholders for simplification of the tedious documentation process.
• Organised Information: Facilitating stakeholders for information-driven pricing strategy, cost & labour optimization.

News Source: pib

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The unwillingness of many leading countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to stand with NATO over the war in Ukraine has brought to the fore once again the term “Global South.”

About Global South:

• Global South refers to various countries around the world that are sometimes described as ‘developing’, ‘less developed’ or ‘underdeveloped’. 
• The term Global South was first used in 1969, but gained momentum after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
• Regional Spread: Many of the Global South countries are in the Southern Hemisphere, largely in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 
• Characteristics of Global South Countries:
  • Poverty ridden with higher levels of income inequality 
  • Lower life expectancy and harsh living conditions
• Geopolitics Context: 
  • The term ‘Global South’ is not geographical. In fact, the Global South’s two largest countries — China and India — lie entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. 
  • Its usage denotes a mix of political, geopolitical and economic commonalities between nations.
• Growing relevance: 
  • By 2030 it is projected that three of the four largest economies will be from the Global South — with the order being China, India, the U.S. and Indonesia.
  • Already the GDP in terms of purchasing power of the Global South dominated BRICS nations surpasses that of the Global North’s G­7 club.
  • These are increasingly asserting themselves on the global scene — be it China’s brokering of Iran and Saudi Arabia’s rapprochement or Brazil’s attempt to push a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.

Classification of  Countries as per the Cold War metrics:

• ‘First World’: It referred to the advanced capitalist nations. Ex- USA, UK, France,  Germany, etc
• ‘Second World: It referred to the socialist nations led by the Soviet Union. Ex- USSR,  China, Cuba, etc
• ‘Third World’: It referred  to developing nations, many of whom were still under the colonial yoke. Ex: Countries in Asia, Africa like India, Indonesia, etc

News Source: The Hindu

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Researchers at Microsoft announced that they had figured out a way to create a strange kind of particle called Majorana zero modes, that could potentially revolutionise quantum computing. 

About Majorana Zero Mode:

• Majorana zero mode is a unique particle or bound state that belongs to the class of Majorana fermions. 
• It was first proposed by the Italian physicist Ettore Majorana in 1937. 
• Distinct characteristics: Majorana zero modes are bound states of particles that are their own antiparticles (counterpart particle with opposite quantum properties such as charge). 
• This distinguishes Majorana zero modes from other particles in the quantum realm.

Application of Majorana Zero Mode:

• Enhanced Stability:
  • It provides increased stability for qubits, the fundamental units of information in quantum computing.
  • Qubits: Just like bits (1 and 0) are the basic units by which computers process information, ‘qubits’ or ‘quantum bits’ are the units of process by quantum computers. 
    • A quantum computer stores information in the form of quantum bits (qubits) that can take on various combinations of zero and one.
  • Even if one entity within the bound state is disturbed, the overall qubit remains protected and retains encoded information.
• Topological Quantum Computing:
  • Majorana zero modes enable topological quantum computing, utilizing non-Abelian statistics.
  • Non-Abelian statistics introduce an additional degree of freedom, allowing for different outcomes based on the order of computational steps.
  •  It provides enhanced stability for qubits in quantum computing. 

News Source: The Hindu

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As part of the third G20 culture working group (CWG) meeting in Hampi, a Guinness world record was created for the largest display of Lambani items titled with ‘Threads of Unity’.

About Lambani Embroidery:

• It is an intricate form of textile embellishment characterised by colourful threads, mirror-work and stitch patterns.
• Practised in:  several villages of Karnataka.
• Technique: 
  • It involves stitching together small pieces of discarded fabric to create a beautiful fabric.
  • It is an amalgam of pattern darning, mirror work, cross stitch, and overlaid and quilting stitches with borders of “Kangura” patchwork appliqué.
• Similarity with other regions: The embroidery traditions of the Lambanis are shared in terms of technique and aesthetics with textile traditions across Eastern Europe, West, and Central Asia.

News Source: Indian Express

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Recently, the Urban 20 Mayoral Summit was held in Gandhinagar.

About the Summit:

• Hosted: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs with the support of National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), the U20 Technical Secretariat.
• It brought together city leaders from across G20 countries to deliberate on actions towards sustainability.

G20 Communiqué from the Mayors to G20 leaders: 

• Six Priorities of the Communiqué:
  • Encouraging environmentally responsible behaviours
  • Accelerating climate finance
  • Championing local culture and economy
  • Ensuring water security
  • Catalysing digital urban futures
  • Reinventing frameworks for urban planning and governance. 
• It is aligned with the G20 theme of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, or One Earth, One Family, One Future.

News Source: pib 

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