H2S and HIV
- Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) and their collaborators have identified a key role played by hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas in suppressing the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
- Increased H2S was found to have a direct effect on reducing the rate at which the virus multiplies in HIV-infected human immune cells.
- The finding paves the way for developing a more comprehensive antiretroviral therapy against HIV.
- According to an IISc. Release, current state-of-theart combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) is not a cure for HIV.
- It can only suppress the virus by causing it to become latent.
- Certain negative effects are also associated with cART, such as the build-up of toxic molecules leading to ‘oxidative stresses and loss of function in the mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouse.
- These effects can contribute to inflammation and organ damage.
THE HINDU
Low public spending in health
- Low public spending on health in India has meant that people depend heavily on their own means to access health care.
- It causes rich-poor, rural-urban, gender and caste based divides in access to health care, pushes people to poverty, and forces them to incur debt or sell assets.
- The National Health Accounts (NHA) report for 2017-18 as it shows that total public spending on health as a percentage of GDP has increased to a historic high of 1.35% of GDP, finally breaking through the 1%-1.2% mark of GDP.
- Out-of-pocket expenditure as a share of total health expenditure has come down to less than 50%.
- An increase in public spending and decline in out-of-pocket expenditure, if actually realised, are welcome steps forward to achieve greater financial protection.
- India’s total public spending on health as a percentage of GDP or in per capita terms has been one of the lowest in the world.
- There has been a policy consensus for more than a decade now that public spending has to increase to at least 2.5% of GDP.
- There is a problem in accounting capital expenditure within the NHA framework.
- Equipment brought or a hospital that is built serves people for many years, so the expenditure incurred is used for the lifetime of the capital created and use does not get limited to that particular year in which expenditure is incurred.
- Counting the capital expenditure for a specific year leads to severe over counting.
- The experience of various developing countries suggests that as public spending on health increases, utilisation of care increases because there is always a lot of latent demand for health care which was hitherto unrealized as people could not afford health care.
- With increased public investment as health care becomes cheaper, people tend to access care more.
THE HINDU
India and Russia
- Not only does the President’s visit come as the world faces the grim prospect of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it also follows years of growing proximity between New Delhi and Washington, a potential irritant to Moscow.
- Simultaneously, the China factor has been steadily pulling the India-Russia bilateral tango in all the wrong directions.
- While Russia relies on cordial ties with China to stabilise its interests in an unstable Afghanistan post the U.S.’s exit, New Delhi and Beijing have scarcely seen eye-to-eye on border tensions and geo-political rivalry across the Asia region.
- Notwithstanding these reasons for possible strategic dissonance, India and Russia reaffirmed the strength of their abiding deep, multi-decade ties, building further confidence in each other through substantive Defence agreements.
- Moscow has agreed on a 10-year military-technical plan that includes technology transfer to India.
- And trade received a fillip through an agreement for India to produce more than 600,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.
- For India’s part, despite resistance from Washington through its Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act, New Delhi will proceed with purchasing the S-400 missile Defence system from Moscow.
Challenges for India and Russia
- First, and most imminently, the pandemic has periodically crippled the growth of both economies and the threats to public health remain despite considerable progress with vaccinations.
- Second, Russia-U.S. ties are showing signs of fraying yet again, this time over U.S. President Joe Biden’s intention, reportedly, to warn Mr. Putin that Russia will face “economy-jarring sanctions” if it seeks to occupy Ukraine, a fear that has grown in the U.S. as Russian troops massed near the Ukraine border.
- India has so far held firm to its mantra of ‘strategic autonomy’ in a multipolar world, but South Block will have to work hard to manage the tightrope act between Moscow and Washington.
- Third, India and China have forged an uneasy truce across their Himalayan border in the aftermath of the Galwan valley exchange in 2020, yet there are numerous potential flashpoints that could send ties into a spiral again, including China’s historically provocative actions in the South China Sea and its thinly veiled insecurity about India joining the Quad for IndoPacific security.
- THE HINDU
SBA 2.0
- The recently released Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) 2.0 guidelines continue to take forward the aims of the SBM launched in 2014, but add an important dimension focused on solid waste management.
- This goes beyond the efficient collection and transportation of waste and brings focus on processing all types of waste like plastic, construction and demolition waste, as well as providing budgetary support for remediating old waste disposed in all dumpsites across 4,372 cities in India before March 2023.
- Its components include source segregation; door-to-door collection of waste; separate transportation of different types of wastes; processing of wet waste, dry waste, and construction and demolition waste.
- Urban local bodies (ULBs) in several States had prepared detailed project reports (DPRs) for setting up waste processing systems for wet and dry waste as part of SBM which were approved, but the process of setting up these facilities was delayed due to lack of funding and techno process knowledge, and delayed DPR approvals
- Bioremediation of old waste is the process of dismantling old waste heaps, sieving the material to recover bio earth (enriched soil) and refuse-derived fuel which can be used as heating material in cement kilns.
- As per the SBM 2.0 guidelines, the total quantity of waste generated by urban areas in India is about 1.32 lakh tonnes daily.
- This adds up to 4.8 crore tonnes per annum. Of this only about 25% is being processed; the rest is disposed of in landfills every year.
- This mission commits to providing financial assistance to set up fresh waste processing facilities and bioremediation projects across all the ULBs.
- The financial assistance committed by the mission varies by State.
- The commitments made by the Government of India (GoI) for solid waste management projects are as follows: 90% for ULBs in the North eastern and Himalayan States; 100% for ULBs in Union Territories without legislature; 80% for ULBs in Union Territories with legislature; 25% for other.
- THE HINDU
Draft mediation bill
- Conciliation is an alternative dispute resolution method in which an expert is appointed to resolve a dispute by convincing the parties to agree upon an agreement.
- Mediation refers to a process of settling disputes by independent and impartial third party who assists the parties to reach a common outcome.
Draft Mediation Bill 2021
- The Bill recognizes that mediation has come of age and needs to be treated as a profession, which is a huge improvement over the part time honorarium basis it has in the court-annexed mediation schemes.
- The Bill acknowledges the importance of institutes to train mediators, and service providers to provide structured mediation under their rules. It provides for pre-litigation mediation.
- Parties are required to have at least one substantive session with the mediator where the process is explained to them.
- Thereafter they are free to continue or terminate the mediation and follow the litigation path if they so decide.
- Bill does away with the confusion emanating from using both expressions “mediation” and “conciliation” in different statutes by opting for the former in accordance with international practice, and defining it widely to include the latter.
- It recognizes online dispute resolution, a process that is going to move mediation from the wings to center stage in a world that COVID-19 has changed.
- It provides for enforcement of commercial settlements reached in international mediation viz between parties from different countries as per the Singapore Convention on Mediation to which India was a notable signatory.
- The Convention assures disputants that their mediation settlements will be enforced without much difficulty across the world.
- It is expected that this Bill would make India a hub for international mediation in the commercial disputes field, and indeed institutions are being opened for this purpose.
- The governing mechanism, the Council. It has three members: a retired senior judge, a person with experience of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) law and an academic who has taught ADR.
- This is an all-powerful body which regulates, certifies, accredits, plans, governs, etc., and it doesn’t have a single mediator.
THE HINDU