A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to facilitate collaboration between the two ministries in operating a special cell of Tele MANAS.

Tele-MANAS:

• The Tele Mental Health Assistance and Networking Across States (Tele-MANAS) initiative was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in October 2022.
• It aims to provide free tele-mental health services all over the country round the clock, particularly to people in remote or underserved areas.
• Tele-MANAS will be organised in a two-tier system:
• Tier 1 comprises state Tele-MANAS cells, which include trained counsellors and mental health specialists.
• Tier 2 will comprise specialists at the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP)/Medical College resources for physical consultation and/or e-Sanjeevani for audio-visual consultation.
• Currently, there are 51 operational Tele-MANAS cells functioning across all 36 States and UTs, offering services in 20 different languages.
• A toll-free, 24/7 helpline number (14416) is available as part of the initiative, allowing callers to select the language of choice for availing services. The service is also accessible at 1-800-891-4416.
• This call will be an Interactive Voice Response system (IVRS) based audio call only, with a timely auto-call back approach.
• Through the automated callback service, the caller will first be attended to by a trained counsellor.
• Based on the level of care required, the counsellor will either provide the care needed within their capabilities or refer the caller for specialist care.
• If the caller requires specialized care, the call will be handled by a mental health specialist (clinical psychologist, psychiatric social worker, psychiatric nurse, or psychiatrist). This level of service will contain both audio- and video-based options.
• In case the caller requires urgent in-person intervention/complex evaluations and management, they will be referred to the nearest in-person service for a physical consultation, and/or an audio-visual consultation with a specialist will be arranged through eSanjeevani.
• These centers will range from Health and Wellness Centre (HWCs) to tertiary care centers as part of the DMHP.

A distinctive plant named Thismia malayana, which steals nutrients from underground fungi, has been published as a new species.

Thismia malayana:

• It is a new species of plant discovered in the tropical rainforests of Peninsular Malaysia.
• It belongs to a group of plants known as mycoheterotrophs.
• Unlike most plants, mycoheterotrophs do not perform photosynthesis.
• Instead, they act as parasites, stealing carbon resources from the fungi on their roots.
• This adaptation takes advantage of the mycorrhizal symbiosis, which is usually a mutually beneficial relationship between colonizing fungi and a plant’s root system.

What happens in mycorrhizal symbiosis?

• The fungi help the tree absorb water and nutrients from the soil, while the tree provides the fungi with sugars produced through photosynthesis.
• This symbiotic partnership is vital for the health and growth of both organisms.
• But Thismia malayana, instead of contributing to the exchange, acts as a parasite,siphoning off carbon resources from the fungi without offering anything in return.
• By stealing nutrients from fungi, this newly discovered species thrives in the low-light conditions of dense forest understories, where its highly specialised flowers are pollinated by fungus gnats and other small insects.
• The unusual plant is around 2 cm long and is typically found hidden in leaf litter and growing near tree roots or old rotten logs.
• Despite its small size, Thismia malayana is very sensitive to environmental changes and has been classified as Vulnerable according to the IUCN Red List.

Research on the Cassini spacecraft did not find a galactic anomaly of the kind predicted in the MOND theory.

MOND theory:

• Propounded by: Israeli Physicist Mordehai Milgrom initiated a new research program in cosmology, called MOND (for MODified Newtonian Dynamics) or Milgromian dynamics, in 1983.
• Basic Idea: Milgrom proposed a set of postulates in three papers describing how Newton’s laws of gravity and motion should be changed in regimes of very low acceleration.
• Milgrom’s postulates were designed to explain the asymptotic flatness of galaxy rotation curves without the necessity of postulating the existence of “dark matter”
• Aims: MOND seeks to replace Newtonian dynamics and general relativity to account for the ubiquitous mass discrepancies in the Universe without invoking the dark matter, an inherent part of the Newtonian Theory of Standard Dynamics.

Limitations of the MOND theory:

• The Cassini Mission: Due to a quirk of MOND, the gravity from the rest of our galaxy should have caused Saturn’s orbit to deviate from the Newtonian expectation subtly,  But Cassini did not find any anomaly of the kind expected in MOND.
• The timing of radio pulses between Earth and Cassini was tested, which allowed for the precise tracking of Saturn’s orbit.
• Finding: The study found out that no matter how the calculations are tweaked, given how MOND would have to work to fit with models for galaxy rotation, it cannot fit the Cassini radio tracking results.
• A test provided by wide binary stars:  MOND predicted that Two stars that orbit a shared centre several thousand AU apart should orbit around each other 20% faster than expected with Newton’s laws.
• But a detailed study rules out this prediction, with the chance of the MOND theory prevailing being the same as a fair coin landing heads up 190 times in a row.
• Failure to explain small bodies in the distant outer Solar System: Comets coming in from there have a much narrower energy distribution than Mond predicts.
• These bodies also have orbits that are usually only slightly inclined to the plane that all the planets orbit close to. Mond would cause the inclinations to be much larger.
• MOND theory also fails on scales larger than galaxies and is unable to explain the motions within galaxy clusters.
• Gravity Anomaly: MOND cannot provide enough gravity either, at least in the central regions of galaxy clusters. However, on their outskirts, MOND provides too much gravity.

Significance:

• Dynamics of individual galaxies: MOND predicts quite accurately the observed dynamics of individual galaxies of all types (from dwarf to giant spirals, ellipticals, dwarf spheroidals, etc.), and of galaxy groups, based only on the distribution of visible matter (and no dark matter).
• General Laws of galactic dynamics: MOND’s basic tenets predicted the general laws of galactic dynamics (with some additional, plausible, non-MOND-specific requirements) are well obeyed by the data, with a0 appearing in these laws in different, independent roles.
• MOND has unearthed a number of unsuspected laws of galactic dynamics, predicting them a priori, and leading to their subsequent tests and verification with data of ever increasing quality.
• One of these phenomenological laws is the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation, which is underlain by the MOND mass-asymptotic-speed relation (MASR)
• New Tools: MOND, as a set of new laws, affords new tools for astronomical measurements, such as of masses and distances of far away objects in ways not afforded by standard dynamics.

Cassini Spacecraft:

• Project Agency: The Cassini probe is a joint endeavour of NASA, the European Space Agency, or ESA, and the Italian Space Agency.
• Launch year: Cassini was launched in 1997 along with ESA’s Huygens probe.
• Type: Orbiter, Flyby Spacecraft
• Path: The spacecraft studied Jupiter for six months in 2000 before reaching its destination, Saturn, in 2004 and starting a string of flybys of Saturn’s moons.
• Huygens probe:  The  Huygens probe on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2004  to study the moon’s atmosphere and surface composition.
• Aim: It was a keystone for the exploration of the Saturnian system and the properties of gaseous planets in our solar system.
• Cassini Solstice Mission: It is the second extended mission. Cassini made the first observations of a complete seasonal period for Saturn and its moons, flew between the rings and descended into the planet’s atmosphere in 2017.

The use of Meropenem drug can cause adverse reactions as per The Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC).

• IPC Warns of Severe Reactions to Meropenem Drug, Calls for Regulation of Antibiotics
• The  Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) has found that using Meropenem can lead to adverse reactions in patients in the form of Acute Generalized Exanthematous Pustulosis (AGEP), a severe drug related reaction, and can be life threatening. It is advised that doctors and patients exercise caution while using the drug.
• The IPC’s drug safety alert analyzed adverse drug reactions from Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) database revealing that Meropenem drug causes adverse drug reaction.
• Regulation of Antibiotics: Drugs Controller General of India has directed states/UT governments to keep a close watch on the sale of inappropriate antibiotic combinations which should be banned immediately.
• Prevention: It has further instructed the officials to prevent the spread of these cocktail drugs into the market.
• The regulator has sought a detailed report of licensed antibiotics available for sale from the drug controllers in the state.

Meropenem Drug:

• Meropenem Drug is a carbapenem antibiotic manufactured by Pfizer and is available under various brand names in India. Pfizer’s meropenem drug formulation already contains a safety alert for acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) on its pack.
• Mechanism of Action: Meropenem penetrates bacterial cells and interferes with the synthesis of vital cell wall components, which leads to cell death.
• Schedule H: The medicine falls under the schedule H and H1 of the drugs and cosmetic rules, 1945 and required to be sold by retail only under the prescription by a doctor.
• Prescribed for Infections: The medication is largely prescribed for the treatment of pneumonia, UTI, intra-abdominal infection, skin infection, meningitis, septicaemia and gynecological infections etc.

Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC):

• Nodal Ministry: It is an Autonomous institution fully financed by the Central Government under the administrative control of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• Established: The Commission has become fully operational from 1st January, 2009
• Chairman: The Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• Mandate:  It is to perform functions such as revision and publication of the Indian Pharmacopoeia and National formulary of India on a regular basis besides providing IP Reference Substances and training to the stakeholders on Pharmacopoeial issues.

Functions:

• Timely publication of the Indian Pharmacopoeia, the official book of standards for drug included therein, in terms of the Second Schedule to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940
• To specify the standards of identity, purity and strength of the drugs imported, manufactured for sale, stocked or exhibited for sale or distributed in India.
• Pharmacovigilance Programme of India: It is Government of India’s drug safety monitoring programme, which collects, collates and analyses drug-related adverse events and send recommendations to Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) for taking appropriate regulatory actions.

Acute Generalized Exanthematous Pustulosis:

• AGEP is an uncommon pustular drug eruption characterized by superficial pustules and is usually classified as a severe cutaneous adverse reaction (SCAR) to a prescribed drug. It is also called toxic pustuloderma.
• Incidence Rate: It is estimated to be about  3–5 cases per million population per year.
• Causes: Close to 90% of cases of AGEP are a result of adverse reactions to a medication, most often beta-lactam antibiotics (e.g., penicillins, cephalosporins).
• Other drugs: tetracyclines, sulfonamides, quinolones, oral antifungals, particularly terbinafine, calcium channel blockers such as diltiazem, hydroxychloroquine, carbamazepine, and paracetamol.
• AGEP is associated with IL36RN gene mutations.

Schedule-H drugs:

• These medicines contain a very high alcoholic influence and are used to treat some serious diseases like heart diseases, anxiety disorders and other diseases.
• Legal Provision: Schedule-H drug is a class of prescription drugs in India mentioned in Schedule-H to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 as framed under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
• Prescription sale: Schedule H warrants retail sale of the medicine only against a valid prescription by a Registered Medical Practitioner only.
• Schedule H list at present contains 510 drugs.
• Schedule H1: It was introduced in 2013 in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 as a new class of prescription drugs containing certain 3rd and 4th generation antibiotics, certain habit forming drugs and anti-TB drugs.