Latest News
12th Aug 2021
TOBACCO USE AMONG SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN (13-15 YEARS) – HIGHEST IN ARUNACHAL PRADESH AND MIZORAM & LOWEST IN HIMACHAL PRADESH AND KARNATAKA
Recently, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare today presided over the release of National Fact Sheet Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS-4), India, 2019.
Global Youth Tobacco Survey?
- It is a self-administered, school-based survey of students in grades associated with 13 to 15 years of age.
- It is designed to enhance the capacity of countries to monitor tobacco use among youth and to guide the implementation and evaluation of tobacco prevention and control programmes.
- It is developed by World Health Organization (WHO), the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Office on Smoking and Health at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (OSH-CDC).
- It uses a standard methodology for constructing the sampling frame, selecting schools and classes, preparing questionnaires, following consistent field procedures, and using consistent data management procedures for data processing and analysis.
- It is an important tool to assist countries in supporting WHO MPOWER, a package of six evidence-based demand reduction measures contained in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
- It was conducted in 2019 by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
- The survey was designed to produce national estimates of tobacco use among school going children aged 13-15 years at the state level and Union Territory (UT) by sex, location of school (rural-urban), and management of school (public-private).
- The first three rounds of GYTS were conducted in 2003, 2006 and 2009.
- The objective of the survey was to provide information on tobacco use, cessation, second-hand smoke, access and availability, exposure to anti-tobacco information, awareness and receptivity to tobacco marketing, knowledge, and attitudes.
- Tobacco use
- Nearly one-fifth of the students aged 13-15 used any form of the tobacco product (smoking, smokeless, and any other form) in their life.
- Prevalence of tobacco use among boys was 9.6% and among girls was 7.4%.
- The prevalence of smoking tobacco was 7.3% and in case of smokeless tobacco product, the prevalence was 4.1%.
- The current use of tobacco among students across the States/ UTs ranged from the highest in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram (58% each) to the lowest in Himachal Pradesh (1.1%) and Karnataka (1.2%).
- Age of initiation of tobacco
- 38% of cigarette, 47% of bidi smokers and 52% of smokeless tobacco users initiated the use before their 10th birthday.
- The median age at initiation of cigarette and bidi smoking, and smokeless tobacco use were 11.5 years, 10.5 years and 9.9 years respectively.
- Cessation
- 2 in 10 current smokers tried to quit smoking in the past 12 months and another 2 in 10 students wanted to quit smoking now.
- 27%of current users of smokeless tobacco tried to quit using in past 12 months and another 25% wanted to quit now.
- Second-hand smoke
- 29.5% of the students were exposed to second-hand smoke (11.2% at home, 21.2% inside enclosed public places, 23.4 at outdoor public places).
- Access & availability
- 69% of current cigarette smokers and 78% of current bidi smokers bought cigarettes/bidis from a store, paan shop, street vendor or vending machine.
- Among the current smokers who bought cigarette/bidi, 45% of cigarette smokers and 47% of bidi smokers were not refused because of their age.
- Media and anti-tobacco messages
- 52% of students noticed anti-tobacco messages in the mass media.
- 18% of students noticed tobacco advertisements or promotions when visiting points of sale.
- Knowledge & attitudes
- 71% of students thought other people’s cigarette smoking is harmful to them.
- 58% of students favoured ban on smoking inside enclosed public places.
- School policy
- 85% of school heads were aware of COTPA, 2003.
- 83% of schools were aware of the policy to display ‘tobacco-free school’ board.
- India became a party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2005.
- The primary national tobacco control law is the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA).
- It granted certain authority to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, who has since passed over 15 Notifications which amend, clarify and expand COTPA.
- National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP): It was launched in the year 2007-08 during the 11th Five-Year-Plan, with the aim to:
-
-
- create awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco consumption;
- reduce the production and supply of tobacco products;
- ensure effective implementation of the provisions under COTPA
- help the people quit tobacco use; and
- facilitate implementation of strategies for prevention and control of tobacco advocated by WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control
- The National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is responsible for overall policy formulation, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the different activities envisaged under NTCP.
-
- The Union Health Minister emphasized the role of teachers as most crucial in creating awareness among children and their parents about harm due to tobacco use and for shaping the attitude of children in this regard.
- It is important to create awareness among children about harms due to tobacco use and it will ensure better outcomes in terms of reduction in prevalence of tobacco use among children and consequently among adults.
- It is a large system of ocean currents.
- It transports warm water from the tropics northwards into the North Atlantic.
- It is the Atlantic branch of the ocean conveyor belt or Thermohaline circulation (THC), and distributes heat and nutrients throughout the world’s ocean basins.
- It works like a conveyor belt, driven by differences in temperature and salt content i.e. the water’s density.
- As warm water flows northwards it cools and some evaporation occurs, which increases the amount of salt.
- The low temperature and a high salt content make the water denser, and this dense water sinks deep into the ocean.
- The cold, dense water slowly spreads southwards, several kilometres below the surface.
- It gets pulled back to the surface and warms in a process called “upwelling” and the circulation is complete.
- It makes sure that the world’s oceans are continually mixed, and that heat and energy are distributed around the earth.
- The study reported that the weakening of AMOC is likely to be associated with a loss of stability by analysing the sea-surface temperature and salinity patterns of the Atlantic Ocean.
- The report found that the AMOC decline is not just a fluctuation or a linear response to increasing temperatures but likely means the approaching of a critical threshold beyond which the circulation system could collapse.
- As the atmosphere warms due to increasing greenhouse gases, the ability of the ocean to lose heat from the North Atlantic surface is diminished and one of the driving factors of the AMOC is weakened.
- The Atlantic Ocean’s current system, an engine of the Northern Hemsiphere’s climate, could be weakening to such an extent that it could soon bring big changes to the world’s weather.
- The surface ocean beneath retains more of heat as the atmosphere warms due to increased greenhouse gas emissions.
- The loss of dynamical stability would imply that the AMOC has approached its critical threshold, beyond which a substantial irreversible transition to the weak mode could occur.
- If the AMOC collapsed, it would:
- Increase cooling of the Northern Hemisphere;
- Sea level rise in the Atlantic;
- An overall fall in precipitation over Europe and North America; and
- A shift in monsoons in South America and Africa
- The climate models suggest that the AMOC will weaken over the 21st Century as greenhouse gases increase which is because as the atmosphere warms, the surface ocean beneath it retains more of its heat.
- They represent a regular volume of water in a definite path and direction.
- The Ocean currents are influenced by two types of forces namely:
- Primary forces that initiate the movement of water
- Secondary forces that influence the currents to flow
- The primary forces that influence the currents are:
- Heating by solar energy: Heating by solar energy causes the water to expand. That is why, near the equator the ocean water is about 8 cm higher in level than in the middle latitudes.
- This causes a very slight gradient and water tends to flow down the slope.
- Wind: Wind blowing on the surface of the ocean pushes the water to move.
- Friction between the wind and the water surface affects the movement of the water body in its course.
- Gravity: Gravity tends to pull the water down the pile and create gradient variation.
- Coriolis force: The Coriolis force intervenes and causes the water to move to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.
- These large accumulations of water and the flow around them are called Gyres. These produce large circular currents in all the ocean basins.
- Differences in water density affect vertical mobility of ocean currents: Water with high salinity is denser than water with low salinity and in the same way cold water is denser than warm water.
- Denser water tends to sink, while relatively lighter water tends to rise.
- Cold water ocean currents occur when the cold water at the poles sinks and slowly moves towards the equator.
- Warm water currents travel out from the equator along the surface, flowing towards the poles to replace the sinking cold water.
- Heating by solar energy: Heating by solar energy causes the water to expand. That is why, near the equator the ocean water is about 8 cm higher in level than in the middle latitudes.
- North Equatorial Current: It flows from the coast of Africa in the east to the West Indies in the west parallel to the equator under the influence of the trade winds.
- Antilles Current: The South Equatorial current bifurcates into two branches near Cape-de-Sao Roque (Brazil).
- Its northern branch reinforces the North Equatorial Current.
- Part of the combined current enters the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, while the remainder passes along the eastern side of the West Indies as the Antilles Current.
- Florida Current: The branch entering the Gulf of Mexico is reinforced by a great bulk of warm ocean water driven by the trade winds and by the water brought by the Mississippi river.
- Gulf Stream: Beyond the Cape Hattteras upto the Grand banks off New Foundland, it is known as the Gulf Stream.
- The Gulf Stream receives plenty of warm, water from the Gulf of Mexico and carries it to cold areas.
- North Atlantic Drift: From the Grand Banks, the Gulf Stream flows eastward across the Atlantic under the influence of the prevailing westerly winds.
- Here it is known as North Atlantic Drift and its speed ii quite large in the open ocean.
- Norwegian Current: The North Atlantic Drift is divided into two branches when it reaches the European Coast.
- The northern branch reaches the British Isles from where it flows along the coast of Norway as the Norwegian current and enters the Arctic Ocean.
- Canaries Current: The second branch of the North Atlantic Drift takes a southerly turn and flows between Spain and Azores as the cold Canaries Current.
- This current finally joins the North Equatorial Current completing the circuit in the North Atlantic.
- East Greenland Current: This current flows from north to south along the eastern coast of Greenland.
- Labrador Current: This current starts from the Baffin Bay and Davis Strait and flows along the coast of Labrador.
- It brings a large number of icebergs from the Baffin Bay and the East Greenland Current joins it at the southern tip of Greenland.
- Sargasso Sea: It is the calm sea lying within the circuit of North Atlantic Current, Gulf Stream, North Atlantic Drift and Canaries Currents.
- It is full of seaweeds known as Sargassumit is known as Sargasso Sea.
- It spreads over a vast area of about 11,000 sq. km.
- The Minister also said that private institutions will be included for development of technologies for this mission to explore the possibilities of mining, bio-diversity, energy, fresh water etc. in Deep Ocean.
- It is a Rs 4,077-crore mission that will be led by scientists at the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
- It is a five-year inter-ministerial and inter-departmental mission.
- The five thrust areas under the Deep Ocean Mission are:
- Development of technologies for deep sea mining;
- Manned submersible;
- Development of ocean climate change advisory services;
- Development of technology for exploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity; and
- Deep ocean survey and setting up of a marine station for ocean Biology.
- Under the mission, India will build a research vessel specifically for carrying out deep ocean explorations and it will be built at an Indian shipyard.
- Ocean climate change advisory services: Under the mission, the government will work on development of models upon observations that will provide future projections of important climate variables.
- This will be made from seasonal to decadal time scales and this particular component will be supporting the “Blue Economy priority area of coastal tourism.”
- Technologies for deep sea mining, and manned submersible: The component is focused on developing a manned submersible that will be able to carry three people to a depth of 6000 metres in the ocean.
- Scientific sensors and tools can also be taken for an Integrated Mining System in order to conduct exploration services. Notably, there are only a few countries that have acquired this capability.
- Conducting deep ocean survey and exploration: The Indian government is trying to explore as well as identify potential sites that have multi-metal Hydrothermal Sulphides mineralization within the Indian Ocean mid-oceanic ridges.
- Technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity: Under this component, the focus of the government will be “bioprospecting of deep sea flora and fauna” and also study how utilization of deep sea can be sustainable.
- Energy and freshwater from the ocean: For off-shore energy development, the aim under this component will be studying the detailed engineering design for offshore Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC).
- Advanced marine station for ocean biology: The marine stations will be formed to study ocean biology and engineering.
- This component will translate research into industrial application and product development through on-site business incubator facilities.
- It will bring together researchers and experts from the ISRO, DRDO, Department of Atomic Energy, CSIR, Department of Biotechnology and the Indian Navy.
- It will make India one among the handful of powerful nations that already have dedicated ocean studies and missions, including the US, Japan, France, Russia and China.
- It provides impetus to India’s Blue Economy initiatives planned from 2020 to 2030 which envisages a number of researches that will be performed to study the oceans.
- It will help India tighten its grip in the South Asia region given India’s long coastline of 7500km and flanked by sea on three sides.
- The technologies required for deep-sea mining have strategic implications and are not commercially available.
- The plan to allow deep-sea mining has come under criticism from environmental organisations that fear it might cause irreparable damage to the flora and fauna on ocean floor.
- Under the Deep Ocean Mission, there are plans to acquire a dedicated vessel for this exploration, which could cost around Rs 900 crore, depending on the equipment
- There are about 30 private and government contracts with the ISA for deep-sea exploration but mining is not allowed because the international code for it has yet to be announced.
- It is observed every year on August 10 to raise awareness about the conservation of lions.
- In 2013, co-founders Dereck and Beverly Joubert the Big Cat Initiative, and National Geographic made a partnership to create World Lion Day.
- The three objectives of World Lion Day are:
- The first is to raise awareness of the plight of the lion and the issues that the species faces in the wild.
- The second is to find ways to protect the big cat’s natural environment, such as creating more national parks and reducing the areas in which people can settle.
- The third is to educate people who live near wild cats on the dangers and how to protect themselves.
- The lion is also known as Panthera Leo and is considered the king of the jungle, being the largest species on earth.
- The lion is a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List.
- The 5 biggest cats are found mostly in India, including the Royal Bengal Tiger, Indian leopard, Clouded Leopard, and Snow leopard.
- India is also recorded as the highest lion population with an increase of 29 percent from 2015 to 2020.
- Lions maintain the ecological balance and ensure the protection of natural forests and help in the conservation of biodiversity.
- The government of India is initiating schemes and projects for the conservation of lions.
- It might affect the ecosystem of the region if the majestic predators are not protected.
- They are slightly smaller than African lions.
- The most striking morphological character, which is always seen in Asiatic lions, and rarely in African lions, is a longitudinal fold of skin running along its belly.
- Asian lions used to range from Turkey, across Asia, to eastern India, but the rise of firearms across the world meant that they were hunted to near-extinction for sport.
- It is protected under Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and listed in Appendix I of CITES.
- It is listed as Endangered on IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
- There are five protected areas that currently exist to protect the Asian lion i.e. Gir Sanctuary, Gir National Park and Pania Sanctuary to form the Gir Conservation Area (GCA).
- The other two wildlife sanctuaries, Mitiyala and Girnar, protect satellite areas within dispersal distance of the Gir Conservation Area.
- The enrolment procedure will require minimum paperwork and in Ujjwala 2.0, migrants will not be required to submit ration cards or address proof.
- It will give maximum benefit to lakhs of migrant workers’ families as they have to give a self-declaration of the address for getting a gas connection.
- It will provide the first refill and hotplate free of cost to the beneficiaries
- The one crore additional connections under Ujjwala 2.0 aim to provide deposit-free LPG connections to those low-income families who could not be covered under the earlier phase of PMUY.
- Apart from a deposit-free LPG connection, a free refill worth over Rs 800 and a free stove will be provided to the beneficiaries.
- It was launched as a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels.
- It aims to safeguard the health of women & children by providing them with a clean cooking fuel – LPG.
- It aims to provide a great boost to the ‘Make in India’ campaign as all the manufacturers of cylinders, gas stoves, regulators, and gas hose are domestic.
- It was launched in 2016 from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.
- It was introduced by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas which aims to make available cooking fuel such as LPG to rural households.
- In the first phase of the scheme, 8 crore poor, dalit, deprived, backward and tribal families were given free gas connections.
- Under the scheme, a target was set to provide LPG connections to five crore women members of BPL households.
- The scheme was expanded in April 2018 to include women beneficiaries from seven more categories such as SC/ST, those under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), beneficiaries of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), forest dwellers, most backward classes, tea gardens and Islands.
- The enrollment procedure for PMUY Ujjwala 2.0 requires minimal paperwork.
- The migrants will not be required to submit ration cards or address proof to get the benefit.
- The eligibility criteria for the scheme are:
- The applicant must be a woman
- The age of the woman should be more than 18 years
- She must be from a BPL family
- She should have a BPL card and ration card
- There should not be LPG Connection in the name of any family member of the applicant
- The meeting was organized virtually in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
- It stated that the agriculture sector in India performed well even during the severe Covid-19 pandemic as exports have also registered significant growth, contributing to global food security.
- The Government of India is determined to attain sustainable development goal to end hunger, achieve food security and nutrition.
- The minister emphasized that the bio-fortified varieties are a source of staple diets, rich in micro nutrients and are being promoted to address the aspects of malnutrition in the country.
- It was expressed that the Government with the goal to double farmer’s income by 2022 has launched several programs to:
- Enhance optimal utilization of water resources;
- Create new infrastructure for irrigation;
- Conserve soil fertility with balanced use of fertilizers;
- Provide connectivity from farm to market; and
- Information and Communication Technology (ICT) linkage besides building infrastructure, organic farming
- India with her tremendous growth trajectory in the field of agriculture will continue to share best practices and build capacities of other developing countries, both bilaterally as well as through collaboration with international organizations.
- India is a full member of the SCO and has played significant role since being a member of SCO.
- India values and honors its relationship with SCO in promoting multilateral, political, security, economic and people-to-people interaction in the region.
- It is important to organize the SCO Agriculture Ministers’ meeting on strengthening cooperation in food security and nutrition especially in this challenging time of COVID-19 pandemic.
- India has stated that there is need for close interaction and cooperation among countries to keep the normal functioning of the food supply chain to safeguard food and nutritional security.
- It is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation established in 2001.
- It was formed in Shanghai (China) by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
- The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Charter was signed during the St. Petersburg SCO Heads of State meeting in 2002 and came into force in 2003.
- In 2017 Astana, the status of a full member of the Organization was granted to India and Pakistan.
- The SCO's main goals are as follows:
- Strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states;
- Promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas;
- Making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and
- Moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order
- The organisation has two permanent bodies i.e. the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.
- The SCO comprises eight member states, namely India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
- The SCO counts four observer states, namely Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia.
- The SCO has six dialogue partners, namely Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka.
- The step to equip the forest personnel with satellite phones would boost anti-poaching measures in the park.
- The Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) procured the ten satellite phones for the National Park at an estimated cost of Rs 16 lakh.
- The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will be the service provider and the park authorities will bear the monthly expenses.
- The satellite phones will be used in the park’s six ranges with no wireless or poor mobile connectivity.
- It was formed in 1908 on the recommendation of Mary Curzon.
- It is located in the edge of the Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspots i.e. Golaghat and Nagaon district of Assam.
- It was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.
- It was declared as Tiger Reserve in 2006.
- The park is the breeding ground of iconic Greater one-horned rhinoceros, elephants, wild water buffalo, and swamp deer.
- It is recognized as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International for the conservation of avifaunal species.
- The vast expanse of tall elephant grass, marshland, and dense tropical moist broadleaf forests undoubtedly makes the park look beautiful but it’s the presence of Brahmaputra River, which makes it look enigmatic.
- It consists of mainly four types of vegetation such as alluvial inundated grasslands, alluvial savanna woodlands, tropical moist mixed deciduous forests, and tropical semi-evergreen forests.
- Kumbhi, Indian gooseberry, the cotton tree, and elephant Apple are amongst the famous trees that can be seen in the park.
- The forest region of Kaziranga Park is home to world’s largest population of Indian Rhinoceros.
- It is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform.
- It facilitates peer-to-peer transactions with a focus on allowing users to transfer or swap tokens across different blockchains.
- A customer could use Poly Network to transfer tokens such as bitcoin from the Ethereum blockchain to the Binance Smart Chain.
- It was launched by the founders of Chinese blockchain project Neo.
- The Poly Network operates on the Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum and Polygon blockchains.
- The tokens are swapped between the blockchains using a smart contract which contains instructions on when to release the assets to the counterparties.
- The Poly Network uses one of the smart contracts to transfer tokens between blockchains maintains large amounts of liquidity to allow users to efficiently swap tokens.
- The attackers stole funds in more than 12 different cryptocurrencies, including ether and a type of bitcoin.
- Skeptical about the very idea of crypto-currency: In India, the reflex action is to bar what you can’t understand and ban what you can’t control.
- The law enforcement and taxation agencies have clamoured for a ban, expressing wariness of these being used as instruments for illicit activities, including money laundering and terror funding.
- Lack of government support to tech firms: The funds that have gone into the Indian blockchain start-ups are less than 0.2 per cent of the amount the sector raised globally.
- The current central government approach makes it near-impossible for entrepreneurs and investors to acquire much economic benefit.
- Lack of backing by a tangible asset: It means they may have no intrinsic value from a traditional perspective, but a virtual market value.
- Their price discovery is in uncharted territory, which heightens the risk of market manipulation and has implications for consumer protection.
- Threat to system stability: The cryptocurrency raise concerns of information asymmetry, hacking vulnerability and fire sales.
- Lack of legalization: They are purely digital products, and our authorities are not geared to handle this advanced technology.
- The digital currency is a decentralized virtual entity that is why the lack of legislation regulating these digital currencies and providing any sort of user protection has become a huge challenge.
- Technology is still immature: The interoperability or the ability of computer system software to exchange and utilize information is a challenge faced by Blockchain.
- The technology has been divided to make multiple uses of it in different industrial domains, separate form cryptocurrency.
POSTED ON 12-08-2021 BY ADMIN
Next previous 
General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
IAS GOOGLE is googled by the team of Raja Sir’s Cracking IAS Academy. Sources include The Hindu, Indian Express, pib.nic.in, Down To Earth, Economic Times, Vigyan Prasar, AIR and the like. IAS GOOGLE has been prepared in pace with emerging UPSC Trends.