Daily Current Affairs : 12th January 2024

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Swachh Survekshan awards
2. Solutions to tackle AMR
3. GM Crops
4. Facts for Prelims

1 . Swachh Survekshan awards

Context: The Swachh Survekshan awards were given away by President Droupadi Murmu. 

Details of the Ranking

• Surat in Gujarat and Indore in Madhya Pradesh were jointly declared the cleanest cities of India at the annual clean city awards for 2023 of the Union Urban Affairs Ministry. The next best spot went to Navi Mumbai. 
• Indore has been adjudged the cleanest city for the seventh time in a row. 
• The list of top 10 cleanest cities with a population of more than one lakh includes Greater Visakhapatnam, Bhopal, Vijayawada, New Delhi, Tirupati, Greater Hyderabad and Pune. 
• In the State rankings, Maharashtra came first, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Odisha is ranked fourth, followed by Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Karnataka, Goa, Haryana and Bihar. 
• In the category of cities with a population of less than one lakh, Sasvad and Lonavala in Maharashtra and Patan in Chhattisgarh secured the top three spots. 
• The Mhow Cantonment Board in Madhya Pradesh was adjudged the cleanest cantonment Board. 
• Varanasi and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh won the top two awards for the cleanest Ganga towns. Chandigarh won the award for the safest city for sanitation workers. Twenty zonal awards were given to medium and small cities. 
• Madhyamgram, Kalyani and Haora, all cities in West Bengal, have the dubious distinction of being placed at the bottom of the list, while the States at the end of the list were Rajasthan, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. 

About Swachh Survekshan

• Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns across India.
• It was launched as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which aimed to make India clean and free of open defecation by 2nd October 2019.
• The Swachh Survekshan, which began with a modest evaluation of 73 major cities in 2016, now covers 4,477 cities. The evaluation this year was done by over 3,000 assessors. Nearly 12 crore citizen responses were received.
• In a bid to scale up the coverage of the ranking exercise and encourage towns and cities to actively implement mission initiatives in a timely and innovative manner, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is now in the process of conducting the sixth edition of the survey to rank all cities under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) with Quality Council of India (QCI) as its implementation partner.
• The Quality Council of India (QCI) has been commissioned the responsibility of carrying out the assessment. 
• The Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India takes up the Swachh Survekshan in urban areas and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in rural areas. 
• The theme of the cleanliness survey 2023 was “Waste to wealth”, while for 2024, it is “Reduce, reuse and recycle”. 

Objectives

• The objective of the survey is to encourage large scale citizen participation, ensure sustainability of initiatives taken towards garbage free and open defecation free cities, provide credible outcomes which would be validated by third party certification, institutionalize existing systems through online processes and create awareness amongst all sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities more habitable and sustainable.
• Additionally, the survey also intends to foster a spirit of healthy competition amongst towns and cities to improve their service delivery to citizens and move towards creating cleaner cities.

How cities are Ranked

• Part 1 Service Level Progress (SLP) : Data provided by ULBs
• Part 2 Certification – Based on GFC Star rating, ODF+/ODF++/Water+
• Based on GFC Star rating, ODF+/ODF++/Water+ 5 components – Feedback, engagement, experience, Swachhta app, Innovation
• Final Score : Cities are ranked based on marks obtained from Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

2 . Anti Microbial Resistance

Context: Although many microbes play a positive role in our health, there are those that have learned to defy the medicines we rely on, leading to a challenging issue known as antimicrobial resistance (AMR). 

What is Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)  

• Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.  
• As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat. 
• It is an urgent global public health threat, killing at least 1.27 million people worldwide and associated with nearly 5 million deaths in 2019.  
• In the U.S., more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur each year. More than 35,000 people die as a result, according to CDC’s 2019 Antibiotic Resistance (AR) Threats Report.  
• It has the potential to affect people at any stage of life, as well as the healthcare, veterinary, and agriculture industries. This makes it one of the world’s most urgent public health problems. 

How Resistance Spreads? 

• Resistant germs can spread between people, animals, and the environment, and can cause deadly infections.  
• Healthcare facilities 
  • People receiving medical care in healthcare facilities like hospitals or nursing homes can get serious infections called healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).  
  • People can get HAIs during or after procedures like surgery, or from devices like catheters or ventilators.  
  • Sometimes these infections can be caused by antimicrobial-resistant germs.  
  • People can also enter healthcare facilities with infections from the community or from another healthcare facility when transferred and these germs could spread without appropriate infection control measures. 
• Community spread 
  • Germs, including resistant germs, can spread between people, animals, and food, through common activities.  
  • For example, germs can spread from food to people and between people and animals without appropriate hand hygiene.  
  • People can also get an infection when traveling, then spread these germs when they return.  
  • Other examples include gonorrhea, a common sexually transmitted disease (STD) that has progressively developed resistance to almost every drug ever used to treat it.  
• Through Water, Soil, & the Environment 
  • Human activity can contaminate the environment (water, soil) with antibiotics and antifungals, which can speed up the development and spread of resistance. Contamination can occur from: 
    • Human and animal waste 
    • Use of antibiotics and antifungals as pesticides on plants or crops 
    • Pharmaceutical manufacturing waste 
• Through food supply 
  • Animals, like people, carry germs in their gut, which can include antimicrobial-resistant germs. 
  • These germs can spread between animals and in their environments (such as on farms, in animal markets, and during transport). When animals are slaughtered and processed for food, these germs can contaminate meat or other animal products. 
  • Animal waste can also carry antimicrobial-resistant germs. Fruits, vegetables, and other produce can become contaminated through contact with soil or water containing untreated or un-composted waste from animals. 

How to tackle it? 

• Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing health crisis, and tackling it needs a multi-pronged approach.  
• Newer, more effective antimicrobial drugs, improved access to life-saving antimicrobials across the globe; better diagnostics to identify drug-resistant infections and treat them with drugs that work, and robust surveillance systems to monitor the spread of drug resistant infections. 
• While discovering new antimicrobial drugs through pharmaceutical research and development is expensive, time-consuming, and often out of reach for many low- and middle-income countries, India can rely on collaborations and innovations to build game-changing strategies in tackling the AMR crisis and catch up with the evolving superbugs.   

Scale of AMR crisis  

• In 2019 alone, drug-resistant superbugs killed about 1.27 million people globally — a toll more than HIV/AIDS or malaria — and according to the United Nations’ (UN) estimates, that number could reach 10 million by 2050. 
• In India, the largest consumer of antimicrobials globally, AMR is gaining ground, and the use of last-resort antibiotics like cephalosporins is soaring. 

• The country is projected to have 1.6 million multi-drug resistant infectious cases in 2040, which is significantly higher than any country.  
• The warnings are stark, but our current approaches to reign in the spread of superbugs seem inadequate.  

Solutions

Diagnostic innovations 

• One way to prevent the reckless overuse of antimicrobials is to diagnose what’s causing an infection early, which helps determine the right course of drugs.  
• In India, many doctors prescribe antibiotics to treat infections that are likely caused by viruses.  
• Rapid diagnostics, which can help identify the exact microbe and the drug to which they are susceptible to, can avoid antibiotic misuse at the point of care. 
• Diagnosing AMR needs research on identifying the appropriate biomarkers to detect multi-drug resistant pathogens and developing accurate and affordable detection tools. Agencies like ICMR, BIRAC could fund such development. 

Antibiotic discovery 

• While the consumption of antibiotics like cephalosporins, quinolones, and macrolides has sharply increased in low-and middle-income countries, the pipeline of new antibiotics is dry.  
• Lack of funding in pharmaceutical research, clinical trial and supply chain challenges, and regulatory hurdles have slowed down new antibiotics development. 
• Developing new antibiotics is expensive and it takes a few years for new drugs to become available in low- and middle-income countries.  
• India needs to start in-house development of new antibiotics by leveraging public-private partnerships between pharma companies and government research labs. 
• Government agencies like ICMR and CSIR, along with DBT, DST could work with international partners like Global Antibiotic Research Development Partnership (GARDP), Wellcome Trust and others to pursue antibacterial research, develop world-class clinical trial infrastructure to accelerate drug development. 
• In India, where 80% urban healthcare providers are private, resource-starved hospitals struggle to procure pricey antibiotics.  
• Innovative pricing models, bulk procurement of such antibiotics and guaranteed purchase commitments from hospitals could not only reduce cost but also imbibe confidence in pharma companies that have invested in antibiotics research.  
• The rollout of universal health coverage in India could improve access to antibiotics for more than 100 million families by reducing out-of-pocket spending for individuals while also easing procurement for the government with bulk orders. 

Other Solutions

• Catalysing startup innovation: There is a need to foster a supportive environment for startups in India and beyond, ensuring they have the necessary financial and research support to continue their crucial work. Encouraging and nurturing these ventures is not just about funding; it’s about building an ecosystem that values innovation and rapid development of life-saving drugs. 
• Rapid tests, swift start-ups: The urgency for advanced rapid diagnostics is unambiguous. Prompt and precise detection of infections is essential for effective treatment and curbing the spread of resistant microbes.  
• Phages: turning viruses on bacteria: Alongside the usual medical treatments, it’s crucial we explore alternative methods like bacteriophage therapy. Bacteriophages, simply known as phages, are viruses that specifically target and annihilate bacteria. They’re emerging as a potent weapon against bacterial infections in humans, thanks to their ability to selectively hit harmful bacteria.  
• Empowering vaccine entrepreneurs: India’s prowess in vaccine manufacturing is well-recognised on the global stage, but there’s tremendous scope for further contribution, particularly in the development of new, innovative vaccines, such as therapeutic ones. 
• Entrepreneurial hope: Entrepreneurship is the beacon of hope. To conquer the AMR challenge and pioneer new antibiotics, rapid diagnostics, vaccines, preventive strategies, and service models, we must adopt an entrepreneurial approach. 

Conclusion 

• AMR is an emerging pandemic, and India is the AMR capital of the world. 
• With India’s demonstrated prowess in pharmaceutical knowledge, experience and infrastructure, it has the opportunity to tackle AMR and show the way for other low- and middle-income countries. 
• In this direction, fostering innovation and international partnerships are key. With millions of lives at stake with the soon-to-become AMR pandemic, the country must act now. 

Recent developments

• In the fight against the rising challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the search for new antibiotics is critical. Zosurabalpin stands out as a promising new candidate, offering a potential new way to tackle drug-resistant Acinetobacter infections. 
  • Wockhardt’s cefepime-zidebactam, which is currently in international Phase 3 trials, holds immense promise, showing the capacity to neutralise most resistance mechanisms exhibited by Gram-negative bacteria. The in-vitro and clinical data available point to its potential as a formidable weapon against the drug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections that are causing havoc not just in India but globally. 
  • Cefiderocol, already approved for use in various countries, stands out as another beacon of hope. Developed by the Japanese firm Shionogi and now distributed by GARDP (Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership), cefiderocol is making its mark as a potent agent against resistant infections. 

3 . GM Crops

Context: SC questions Centre on GM mustard.  

About the news

• The Supreme Court recently questioned the government on whether the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) had considered the reports of the court-appointed Technical Experts Committee (TEC) on the biosafety of transgenic mustard hybrid DMH-11 before approving it for environmental release. 
• Attorney-General R. Venkataramani, for the Centre, said the GEAC was a statutory body and the committee had examined relevant scientific data before giving the go-ahead for the environmental release. 
• He submitted that a detailed analysis of the TEC’s recommendations and steps taken by the Centre reveal that the regulatory regime had been further strengthened since 2012 to ensure that a transparent and science-based framework was in place for environmental risk assessment of GM crops. 
• He said the conditional approval granted for environmental release of GM mustard was an example of effective implementation of the strengthened regulatory framework. 

About genetic modification (GM) of crops? 

• Genetic modification of plants involves adding a specific stretch of DNA into the plant’s genome, giving it new or different characteristics. 
• This could include changing the way the plant grows, or making it resistant to a particular disease. 
• The new DNA becomes part of the GM plant’s genome which the seeds produced by these plants will contain. 

Process 

• For example if scientists want to produce wheat with high protein content and they decide to incorporate the high protein quality of beans into wheat. To make this possible, a specific sequence of DNA with protein-making trait is isolated from the bean (which is called the donor organism) and is inserted into the gene structure of wheat, in a laboratory process. 
• The new gene or the transgene thus produced is transferred into the recipient cells (wheat cells). The cells are then grown in tissue culture where they develop into plants. The seeds produced by these plants will inherit the new DNA structure. 
• Traditional cultivation of these seeds will then be undertaken and we will have genetically modified wheat with high protein content. 

What is the legal position of genetically modified crops in India? 

• In India, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is the apex body that allows for commercial release of GM crops. In 2002, the GEAC had allowed the commercial release of Bt cotton. More than 95 per cent of the country’s cotton area has since then come under Bt cotton. 
• Use of the unapproved GM variant can attract a jail term of 5 years and fine of Rs 1 lakh under the Environmental Protection Act ,1989. 

Benefits 

GM crops are perceived to offer benefits to both producers and consumers. 

• Genetic engineering can improve crop protection. Crops with better resistance to pest and diseases can be created. The use of herbicides and pesticides can be reduced or even eliminated. 
• Farmers can achieve high yield, and thereby get more income. 
• Nutritional content can be improved. 
• Shelf life of foods can be extended. 
• Food with better taste and texture can be achieved. 
• Crops can be engineered to withstand extreme weather 

What are the potential risks? 

• Genetically engineered foods often present unintended side effects. Genetic engineering is a new field, and long-term results are unclear. Very little testing has been done on GM food. 
• Some crops have been engineered to create their own toxins against pests. This may harm non-targets such as farm animals that ingest them. The toxins can also cause allergy and affect digestion in humans. 
• Further, GM crops are modified to include antibiotics to kill germs and pests. And when we eat them, these antibiotic markers will persist in our body and will render actual antibiotic medications less effective over a period of time, leading to superbug threats. This means illnesses will become more difficult to cure. 
• Besides health and environmental concerns, activists point to social and economic issues. They have voiced serious concern about multinational agribusiness companies taking over farming from the hands of small farmers. Dependence on GM seed companies could prove to be a financial burden for farmers. 
• Farmers are reluctant because they will have limited rights to retain and reuse seeds. 
• Their concern also includes finding a market that would accept GM food. 
• People in general are wary of GM crops as they are engineered in a lab and do not occur in Nature 

GM crops in India 

• Bt cotton is the only genetically modified (GM) crop that has been approved for commercial cultivation in 2002 by the Government of India. Long term studies were conducted by ICAR on the impact of Bt cotton which did not show any adverse effect on soil, microflora and animal health. More than 95 per cent of the country’s cotton area has since then come under Bt cotton. 
• Bt Brinjal resistant to brinjal shoot fly developed by M/S Mahyco in collaboration with University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad; Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore and ICAR-Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi was approved by GEAC in 2009 but due to 10 years moratorium imposed on GM crops by the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, no further action on commercialization has been taken. 
• GM mustard Dhara Mustard Hybrid 11 (DMH 11) developed by Delhi University is pending for commercial release as GEAC has advised to generate complete safety assessment data on environmental bio-safety, especially effects on beneficial insect species 

Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee 

• The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) functions under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). 
• It is responsible for the appraisal of activities involving large-scale use of hazardous microorganisms and recombinants in research and industrial production from the environmental angle. 
• The committee is also responsible for the appraisal of proposals relating to the release of genetically engineered (GE) organisms and products into the environment including experimental field trials. 
• GEAC is chaired by the Special Secretary/Additional Secretary of MoEF&CC and co-chaired by a representative from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT). 

Mustard cultivation 

• Mustard is one of India’s most important winter crops which is sown between mid-October and late November. The Indian mustard (B. juncea) is a member of the Brassicaceae family. 
• Mustard is cultivated by around 6 million farmers in around 6.5-7 million hectares of land across the states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. 

What is DMH-11? 

• Hybridisation involves crossing two genetically dissimilar plant varieties that can even be from the same species. The first-generation (F1) offspring from such crosses tend to have higher yields than what either parent can individually give. 
• Such hybridisation isn’t easy in mustard, as its flowers have both female (pistil) and male (stamen) reproductive organs, making the plants largely self-pollinating. Since the eggs of one plant cannot be fertilised by the pollen grains from another, it limits the scope for developing hybrids — unlike in cotton, maize or tomato, where this can be done through simple emasculation or physical removal of anthers. 
• By genetic modification (GM). Scientists at Delhi University’s Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) have developed the hybrid mustard DMH-11 containing two alien genes isolated from a soil bacterium called Bacillus amyloliquefaciens. 
• The first gene (‘barnase’) codes for a protein that impairs pollen production and renders the plant into which it is incorporated male-sterile. This plant is then crossed with a fertile parental line containing, in turn, the second ‘barstar’ gene that blocks the action of the barnase gene. The resultant F1 progeny is both high-yielding and also capable of producing seed/ grain, thanks to the barstar gene in the second fertile line. 
• The CGMCP scientists have deployed the barnase-barstar GM technology to create what they say is a robust and viable hybridisation system in mustard. This system was used to develop DMH-11 by crossing a popular Indian mustard variety ‘Varuna’ (the barnase line) with an East European ‘Early Heera-2’ mutant (barstar). DMH-11 is claimed to have shown an average 28% yield increase over Varuna in contained field trials carried out by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). 

Concerns 

• GM mustard has been a subject of intense debate in the country with both pro- and anti-GM activists placing their claims and counterclaims vigorously. 
• Worried that a genetically modified mustard crop would impact honey production in India, honey cultivators have opposed the GM mustard variety and asked the government not to approve it for commercial cultivation claiming that it may adversely affect the livelihood of lakhs of farmers. 
• The DMH-11 mustard variety is herbicide tolerant, allowing farmers to spray over the crops with weed killer without harming the crops. This has raised fears that farmers may resort to excessive use of toxic herbicides which can lead to weeds becoming resistant to them and the emergence of so-called superweeds. Critics are also concerned about herbicide residue on GM crops. 

Why is the government pushing for GM Mustard? 

• Mustard contributes 40 per cent of total edible oils production in India. By 2025-26 India will need 34 million tonnes of edible oils, which will put a significant pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves. 
• Today, mustard is grown in 8 million hectares, with 1-1.3 tonnes yield per hectare. The government claims that transgenic seeds could potentially raise the yields to 3-3.5 tonnes per hectare while being resistant to pests that cause white rust. 

4 . Facts for Prelims

Indian History Congress

• The inception of the Indian History Congress (IHC) can be traced to the efforts of scholars working on India’s ancient past as well as modern history, in a bid to counter the colonial claims, while also drawing from Western analytical methods. 
• Founded in 1935, it is the largest association of professional historians in South Asia. 
• The lead to establish an all-India national congress of historians was taken by Poona historians during the period of British colonial rule. 
•  The first session took place in Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, Poona, in 1935. 
• Historians such as Datto Vaman Potdar, Surendra Nath Sen (who later became the first director of the National Archives of India), and Sir Shafaat Ahmad Khan attended the first session.  

Atal Setu

• It is India’s longest sea bridge.  
• It has shortened the distance between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai to just 20 minutes which earlier took 2 hours. 
• It is 21.8 km in length and has six lanes. 
• It originates from Sewri in Mumbai and ends at Nhava Sheva in Uran taluka in Raigad district.