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Current Affairs
Cyclone Gulab
Reference News:
Cyclone ‘Gulab’ is likely to hit east coast of India. It is formed in the Bay of Bengal Region.
The name was given by?
• Gulab was suggested by Pakistan.
How are cyclones formed?
• Cyclones are formed over the oceanic
water in the tropical region.
• In this region, the sunlight is highest
which results in warming of land and
water surface. Due to warming of the
surface, the warm moist air over the
ocean rises upwards following which
cool air rushes in to fill the void, they
too get warm and rise — the cycle
continues.
But what creates the spin?
• Wind always blows from high pressure to low pressure areas. High pressure areas are
created in the cold region while low is created in the warm regions. Polar regions are high
pressure areas as the amount of sunlight here is less than the tropical region. So, wind blows
from Polar Regions to tropical regions.
• Then comes the Earth’s movement, which is west to east. The Earth’s rotation on its axis
causes deflection of the wind (in the tropical region as the speed of spinning of Earth is higher
compared to polar sides due to its spherical shape — blowing from both the Polar Regions.
Wind coming from the Arctic is deflected to the right while Antarctic wind deflects to the left
side.
• So, wind is already blowing in a direction. But when it reaches the warmer place, cool air
starts getting attracted to the centre to fill the gap. So while moving to the centre, cool air
keeps getting deflected resulting in circulation of wind movement — this process continues
until the cyclone hits the land.
What happens when a cyclone hits the land?
• Cyclone dissipates when it hits the land as the warm water that rises and creates space for
cool water is no longer available on land. Also, the moist air that rises up forms clouds leading
to rains that accompany gusting winds during cyclones.
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Competition Commission of India and Cartelisation
Reference News:
Last week, the Competition Commission of India found that three beer companies had colluded to
fix beer prices for a full decade — between 2009 and 2018.
• As a result, the CCI slapped a penalty of Rs 873 crore on the companies for cartelisation in
the sale and supply of beer in 10 states and Union Territories.
What is a cartel?
According to CCI, a “Cartel includes an association of producers, sellers, distributors, traders or
service providers who, by agreement amongst themselves, limit, control or attempt to control the
production, distribution, sale or price of, or, trade in goods or provision of services”.
The three common components of a cartel are:
1. An agreement.
2. Between competitors.
3. To restrict competition.
Features of a cartel:
• The agreement that forms a cartel need not be formal or written.
• Cartels almost invariably involve secret conspiracies.
• Here, competitors refers to companies at the same level of the economy (manufacturers,
distributors, or retailers) in direct competition with each other to sell goods or provide
services.
What do these cartels do?
• Price-fixing.
• Output restrictions.
• Market allocation.
• Bid-rigging.
In simple terms, “participants in hard-core cartels agree to insulate themselves from the rigours of
a competitive marketplace, substituting cooperation for competition”.
Challenges posed by cartels:
1. Hurt not only the consumers but also, indirectly, undermine overall economic efficiency and
innovations.
2. By artificially holding back the supply or raising prices in a coordinated manner, companies
either force some consumers out of the market by making the commodity (say, beer) more
scarce or by earning profits that free competition would not have allowed.
3. A cartel shelters its members from full exposure to market forces, reducing pressures on them
to control costs and to innovate.
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Why do companies resort to Cartelization?
The companies blamed government rules, which require them to seek approvals from state
authorities for any price revisions, as the main reason for forming a cartel.
About the Competition Commission Of India:
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) was established under the Competition Act, 2002 for
the administration, implementation and enforcement of the Act, and was duly constituted in
March 2009. Chairman and members are appointed by the central government.
Functions of the commission:
1. It is the duty of the Commission to eliminate practices having adverse effects on
competition, promote and sustain competition, protect the interests of consumers and
ensure freedom of trade in the markets of India.
2. The Commission is also required to give opinion on competition issues on a reference
received from a statutory authority established under any law and to undertake competition
advocacy, create public awareness and impart training on competition issues.
The Competition Act:
The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 (MRTP Act) was repealed and replaced
by the Competition Act, 2002, on the recommendations of the Raghavan committee.
• The Competition Act, 2002, as amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007,
prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises and
regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control and M&A), which causes or likely
to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.
Assam’s Rice Wine Judima gets GI tag
Reference News:
Judima, the wine brewed by the Dimasa community in Assam, has been awarded the geographical
indication (GI) tag.
• This wine is made from rice and a certain herb.
• It is the first beverage from the north-eastern region to earn this label.
• Judima is intrinsic to the social and cultural life of the Dimasas.
• The GI tag for the drink came 14 years after the ginger of the adjoining Karbi Anglong
district received its geographical indication.
• A week ago, Manipur saw two of its indigenous products get the GI tag.
o These were the Tamenglong orange and Hathei chilli grown in the hills.
What is GI tag?
• It is an indication which is definite to a geographical territory.
• It is used for agricultural, natural and manufactured goods.
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• The goods need to be produced or processed or prepared in that region.
• The product must have a special quality or reputation.
• The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 provides
registration and also protection of GI goods in India.
• The Geographical Indications Registry for India is located in Chennai.
• A registered GI tag prohibits a third party to use such products.
• GI is a collective intellectual property right and is thus owned by all the producers within the
defined GI territory.
• Patents and trademarks are owned by an individual or a business entity.
What is dark energy?
Reference News-
Recently, an international team of researchers made the first direct detection of dark energy.
• They noticed certain unexpected results in the XENON1T experiment and write that dark
energy may be responsible for it.
What is Dark Energy?
More is unknown than is known. We know
how much dark energy there is because we
know how it affects the universe’s
expansion. Other than that, it is a complete
mystery. But it is an important mystery. It
makes up about 68% of the universe.
Dark Energy is a hypothetical form of energy
that exerts a negative, repulsive pressure,
behaving like the opposite of gravity.
• It is causing the rate of expansion of
our universe to accelerate over time,
rather than to slow down. That’s
contrary to what one might expect
from a universe that began in a Big
Bang.
How is dark energy different from dark matter?
Everything we see – the planets, moons,
massive galaxies – makes up less than 5% of
the universe. About 27% is dark matter and
68% is dark energy.
While dark matter attracts and holds galaxies together, dark energy repels and causes the
expansion of our universe.
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• The existence of dark matter was suggested as early as the 1920s, while dark energy wasn’t
discovered until 1998.
About the XENON1T experiment:
• It is the world’s most sensitive dark matter experiment and was operated deep
underground at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy.
• It uses the dual-phase (liquid/gas) xenon technique and is located underground at the
Laboratory Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, Italy.
The theory of general relativity:
The leading theory, however, considers dark energy a property of space. Albert Einstein was the
first to understand that space was not simply empty. He also understood that more space could
continue to come into existence. In his theory of general relativity, Einstein included a
cosmological constant to account for the stationary universe scientists thought existed.
• After Hubble announced the expanding universe, Einstein called his constant his “biggest
blunder.”
• But Einstein’s blunder may be the best fit for dark energy. Predicting that empty space can
have its own energy, the constant indicates that as more space emerges, more energy
would be added to the universe, increasing its expansion.
Daily Topic
Disease Surveillance System
Introduction:
A nodal point for the application of principles of epidemiology:
1. In the years to follow, epidemiology became a key discipline to prevent and control infectious
diseases (and in present context for non-communicable diseases as well).
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2. The application of principles of epidemiology is possible through systematic collection and
timely analysis, and dissemination of data on the diseases.
3. This is to initiate action to either prevent or stop further spread, a process termed as disease
surveillance.
4. The high-income countries invested in disease surveillance systems but low- and middle-
income countries used limited resources for medical care.
5. Then, in the second half of Twentieth century, as part of the global efforts for smallpox
eradication and then to tackle many emerging and re-emerging diseases, many countries
recognised the importance and started to invest in and strengthen the diseases surveillance
system.
6. These efforts received further boost with the emergence of Avian flu in 1997 and the Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-04.
Background:
1. A defining moment in the history of epidemiology was the removal of the handle of a water
pump.
2. This is a spectacular story. In 1854, when a deadly outbreak of cholera affected Soho area of
London, John Snow (1813-1858), a British doctor and epidemiologist, used the health
statistics and death registration data from the General Registrar Office (GRO) in London, to
plot on a map of the area, the distribution of cholera cases and deaths.
3. He observed that a majority of cases and deaths were in the Broad Street area, which
received supply from a common water pump, supporting his theory that cholera was a
waterborne, contagious disease.
4. The collection of health data and vital statistics by the GRO had improved over the previous
decade-and-a-half due to untiring efforts put in by another medical doctor, William Farr
(1807-1883).
5. Based upon the data on the time, place and person distribution of cholera cases and deaths,
supplemented by a map, Snow, on September 7, 1854, could convince the local authorities in
London to remove the handle of the water pump, which they reluctantly did.
6. The cholera outbreak was controlled in a few weeks. It started the beginning of a new era in
epidemiology.
7. John Snow is often referred to as the father of modern epidemiology and William Farr as
founder of the modern concept of disease surveillance system.
Integrated Disease Surveillance evolving in India:
1. A major cholera outbreak in Delhi in 1988 and the Surat plague outbreak of 1994, nudged
the Government of India to launch the National Surveillance Programme for Communicable
Diseases in 1997.
2. However, this initiative remained rudimentary till, in wake of the SARS outbreak, in 2004,
India launched the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP).
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3. The focus under the IDSP was to increase government funding for disease surveillance,
strengthen laboratory capacity, train the health workforce and have at least one trained
epidemiologist in every district of India.
4. With that, between 2004 and 2019, nearly every passing year, more outbreaks were detected
and investigated than the previous year.
5. It was on this foundation of the IDSP (which now has become a full fledged programme) that
when COVID-19 pandemic struck, India could rapidly deploy the teams of epidemiologists and
public health experts to respond to and guide the response, coordinate the contact
tracing and rapidly scale up testing capacity.
6. The disease surveillance system and health data recording and reporting systems are key
tools in epidemiology;
7. As per data from the fourth round of sero-survey, Kerala and Maharashtra States could
identify one in every six and 12 infections, respectively;
8. While in States such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, only one in every 100
COVID-19 infections could be detected, pointing towards a weak disease surveillance
system.
9. The estimated excess deaths are also higher in those States which have weak disease
surveillance systems and the civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems.
Case study: Kerala during Nipah virus time period:
1. In a well-functioning disease surveillance system, an increase in cases of any illness would be
identified very quickly.
2. An example is Kerala, arguably the best performing disease surveillance system amongst the
India States, as it is picking the maximum COVID-19 cases; it could pick the first case of the
Nipah virus in early September 2021.
3. On the contrary, cases of dengue, malaria, leptospirosis and scrub typhus received attention
only when more than three dozen deaths were reported and health facilities in multiple
districts of Uttar Pradesh, began to be overwhelmed.
4. The situation is not very different in States such as Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, where viral
illnesses, most likely dengue, are causing hospitalisation but not being correctly identified or
are being reported as mystery fever.
5. This is a bit concerning as 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic and a lot of political
promises of strengthening disease surveillance and health systems, one would have expected
a better performance.
India’s disease surveillance system needs a reboot:
1. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported noticeable trends with respect to COVID-
19 cases in India.
2. Its data shows that 3% of deaths have been concentrated in the age group of 60 years and
above, and in 83% of deaths, the deceased were battling pre-existing identified health
conditions.
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3. Evidently, we have reason to fear the novel coronavirus for which we have no established
cure.
4. However, there is even more reason to fear a combination of COVID-19 with existing
illnesses and medical complications.
5. The disease is lethal for those with compromised immunity brought on by age, existing
respiratory infections, or essentially, malnutrition.
6. In technical medical terms, this is a situation of comorbidity, which in ways makes it difficult
to differentiate between dying of COVID-19, or, dying with COVID-19.
Way Forward: What should be done?
A review of the IDSP by joint monitoring mission in 2015, conducted jointly by the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare, the Government of India and World Health Organization India had
made a few concrete recommendations to strengthen disease surveillance systems.
1. First, the government resources allocated to preventive and promotive health services and
disease surveillance need to be increased by the Union and State governments.
2. Second, the workforce in the primary health-care system in both rural and urban areas needs
to be retrained in disease surveillance and public health actions. The vacancies of
surveillance staff at all levels need to be urgently filled in.
3. Third, the laboratory capacity for COVID-19, developed in the last 18 months, needs to be
planned and repurposed to increase the ability to conduct testing for other public health
challenges and infections.
4. This should be linked to create a system in which samples collected are quickly transported
and tested and the reports are available in real time.
5. Fourth, the emerging outbreaks of zoonotic diseases, be it the Nipah virus in Kerala or avian
flu in other States as well as scrub typhus in Uttar Pradesh, are a reminder of the
interconnectedness of human and animal health.
6. The ‘One Health’ approach has to be promoted beyond policy discourses and made
functional on the ground.
7. Fifth, there has to be a dedicated focus on strengthening the civil registration and vital
statistics (CRVS) systems and medical certification of cause of deaths (MCCD).
8. These are complementary to disease surveillance systems and often where one is weak, the
other is also functioning sub-optimally.
9. Sixth, it is also time to ensure coordinated actions between the State government and
municipal corporation to develop joint action plans and assume responsibility for public
health and disease surveillance.
10.The allocation made by the 15th Finance Commission to corporations for health should be
used to activate this process.
Clearly, it is time all these recommendations are re-looked and acted upon. At a more specific
level, the following should be considered by health policy makers.
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These included increasing financial resource allocation, ensuring adequate number of trained
human resources, strengthening laboratories, and zoonosis, influenza and vaccine-preventable
diseases surveillance.
Conclusion:
The emergence and re-emergence of new and old diseases and an increase in cases of endemic
diseases are partly unavoidable.
We cannot prevent every single outbreak but with a well-functioning disease surveillance
system and with application of principles of epidemiology, we can reduce their impact.
However, it is to be can only be guided by coordinated actions between a disease surveillance
system, a civil registration system and experts in medical statistics, and, finally, informed by
the application of principles of epidemiology.
Indian States urgently need to do everything to start detecting diseases, which will prepare the
country for all future outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics. This is amongst the first things,
which Indian health policy makers should pay attention to.
Question of the day
Consider the following statements:
1. The National Mission on Cultural Mapping (NMCM) is implemented with support of UNESCO.
2. NMCM aims to build a comprehensive database of artists, art forms and other resources.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
