Why have Africa, Asia seen so many dangerous viruses emerge recently

• As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), from January 2021 to the present day, the majority of cases were reported in Asian and/or African countries.
• There was a 63 per cent increase in the number of zoonotic outbreaks in Africa between 2012 and 2022 compared to 2001 and 2011.
• It’s not that these regions are innately bound to produce new diseases. Multiple factors are at work here.
• Humans in these continents have a greater chance of coming in contact with animals more often in their many densely populated regions, thus increasing the risk of the spread of diseases.
• The dramatic, transformative change that many countries are undergoing in these regions — countries like the UK, to an extent, went through a similar experience when they underwent industrialisation in the 18th and 19th centuries and faced diseases like cholera and typhoid.
• Factors like Increased frequency and reach of travel, changing patterns of land use, changing diets, wars and social upheaval and climate change increase interactions between humans and reservoir hosts, facilitating exposure to zoonotic viruses.

What type of vaccine will work against monkeypox

• There is yet no dedicated monkeypox vaccine, but vaccinations against smallpox was found to be 85% effective in preventing smallpox, a disease eradicated in 1980.
• In 2019, the United States Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), approved the JYNNEOS vaccine for the prevention of smallpox, monkeypox and other diseases caused by orthopoxviruses, including vaccinia virus, in adults 18 years of age and older and categorised as having a “high risk of infection.”
• JYNNEOS, developed by Danish biotechnology company, Bavarian Nordic, contains a live vaccinia virus that does not replicate efficiently in human cells.

Invasive frog, snake cost world economy $16 billion

• The brown-and-green frog, known as lithobates catesbeianus and weighs over two pounds (0.9 kg), had the greatest impact in Europe.
• The brown tree snake, known as boiga irregularis, has multiplied uncontrollably on Pacific islands including Guam and the Mariana Islands, where the species was introduced by the U.S. troops in World War II.
• The snakes have, at times, been so abundant that they caused power outages by crawling on electrical equipment. This signals the need for investment controlling global transport of invasive species to avoid paying for mitigation after the invasions occur.

States fail to give Environment Ministry details on elephant reserves

• Data uploaded on the Wildlife Institute of India’s website say the elephant population across 16 States in the country ranged between 27,785 and 31,368 in 2012.
• While Karnataka had up to 7,458 elephants followed by Assam with 5,281, Maharashtra had only four.
• India has 30 notified elephant reserves, spread across 15 Elephant Range States.
• There are also 10 sites for the MIKE (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants) programme, mandated by the Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
• The MIKE sites are Chirang-Ripu and Dihing-Patkai in Assam, Deomali in Arunachal Pradesh, Garo Hills in Meghalaya, Eastern Dooars in West Bengal, Mayurbhanj in Odisha, Shivalik in Uttarakhand, Mysore in Karnataka, Wayanad in Kerala and Nilgiri in Tamil Nadu.

Delhi''s new excise policy and why LG is seeking CBI probe

• From August 1, liquor will be sold only through government outlets in the Capital. He said the number of liquor shops will not exceed 850 – as under the previous policy.
• The new excise policy was introduced in Delhi in November 2021.
• It made sweeping changes to the nature and functioning of liquor trade in the city. The government exited the customer-end of the trade entirely, shutting all government-run liquor vends, and sale of liquor was handed over exclusively to private players.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches floating solar power plant at NTPC-Kayamkulam

• Prime Minister said that so far, about 170 GW capacity has been installed from non-fossil sources in India. India is among the top four-five countries in terms of installed solar capacity.
• The Kayamkulam plant is the second-largest floating solar power project of the NTPC after the 100-MW plant at Ramagundam in Telangana.
• The floating solar system was built on a 450-acre lake area adjacent to the NTPC’s Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Project (RGCCPP). Implemented at a cost of ₹465 crores, the project consists of around three lakh Made in India solar PV panels floating on water.

Spanish PM tells public to stop wearing ties to save energy

• Mr Sanchez said, his government will adopt urgent energy-saving measures on as European countries strive to become less dependent on Russian gas in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
• Over the past few weeks, Europe has experienced record-high temperatures.
• Prime Minister Sanchez said, not wearing ties will ensure people stay cooler and therefore lower energy costs because air conditioners will be used less often.
• Spain is not the first to take this move. In 2011, Japan introduced its "Super Cool Biz" campaign, which encouraged office workers to wear cooler clothes in summer.
• And during sweltering temperatures in the UK recently, politicians were told they could ditch their suit jackets while in the House of Commons.