National Centre Of Excellence for Green Port & Shipping

• At "INMARCO 2022" in Mumbai, India's first National Centre of Excellence for Green Port & Shipping (NCoEGPS) recently made its debut.
• The Institute of Marine Engineers hosts the INMARCO, an international maritime conference and exhibition, every four years.

About NCoEGPS.

• The Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways (MOPSW) has launched a significant drive to offer more environmentally friendly alternatives.
• The MoPSW's Sagarmala initiative will serve as the framework for the NCoEGPS' operations.
• The project's knowledge and execution partner is the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

Aim:

• The centre wants to promote carbon neutrality and the circular economy (CE) in India's maritime industry by creating a legislative framework and road map for adopting alternative technologies.
• Green shipping is the practise of using fewer resources and energy to carry people and commodities by ship, with a focus on preventing the release of Green House Gases (GHGs) and other environmental pollutants that might otherwise harm the environment.
• India wants to expand the current contribution of renewable energy—less than 10%—to 60% of the total electricity required by each of its main ports.
• This will be done using energy produced by the sun and the wind.
• By creating cutting-edge technology and application goods, the goals of this project are to support "Make in India" in the fields of engineering, port, and coastal and inland water transportation.
• To encourage rapid innovation in order to offer the best answers to the many problems these sectors face.
• To develop a pool of qualified workers for the sector who possess cutting-edge knowledge in both theories and practise.
• Scientific research and technology development's technical arm's self-sufficiency in finding and analysing complicated problems and resolving them.

Significance:

• It is a significant step toward the Mission Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) movement's goal of making ports and shipping more environmentally friendly.
• The Center will work with all ports, shipping companies, and marine states to comprehend their issues and provide fixes using tried-and-true upstream scientific methods.
• Related Initiatives: By 2030, the ports want to cut carbon emissions from cargo handling by 30%.
• The Maritime Vision Document 2030 is a ten-year plan outlining India's vision for a thriving blue economy and a sustainable maritime sector.
• India has been chosen as the first nation to carry out a pilot project for green shipping as part of the IMO's Green Voyage 2050 project.

The Green Voyage 2050 Project: What Is It?

• The Norwegian government and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) partnered on the Green Voyage 2050 Project, which was unveiled in May 2019 and aims to shift the shipping sector toward a future with lower carbon emissions.
• Through its support of the Initial IMO Green House Gas (GHG) Strategy, the worldwide alliance helps poor nations, such as Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), fulfil their commitment to pertinent climate change and energy efficiency goals.
• To encourage international efforts to showcase and evaluate technological solutions is one of GreenVoyage 2050's key objectives.

Resolving India's Malnutrition Crisis

Experts have proposed several solutions to the problem of chronic malnutrition.

About Malnutrition:

• It refers to deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person's energy and/or nutrient intake.
• It is a persistent issue and a long-standing challenge for India's public administration.

Malnutrition refers to three broad categories of conditions:

Undernutrition:

• Wasting (low weight-for-height), stunting (low height-for-age), and underweight (low weight-for-age) are all examples of malnourishment.
• The stunted and wasted children are considered underweight, indicating a lack of proper nutritional intake and inadequate post-partum care.

Malnutrition related to micronutrients:

• It includes micronutrient deficiencies (a lack of essential vitamins and minerals) as well as micronutrient excess; and

Overweight:

Obesity

• Obesity leads to diet-related noncommunicable diseases are included (such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers).

Malnutrition in India: Various Reports

Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022:

• In the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022, India ranked 107th out of 121 countries.
• The GHI is an important indicator of nutrition, particularly among children, because it examines stunting, wasting, and mortality in children, as well as calorific deficiency in the general population.

National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5):

• According to India's National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) from 2019-21, 35.5% of children under the age of five were stunted, 19.3% were wasting, and 32.1% were underweight.
• Undernutrition in India is a gendered issue.
• According to the report The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020, nearly 51.4 percent of women of reproductive age in India were anaemic in 2016.
• Almost half of all women suffer from severe malnutrition and anaemia.

Malnutrition Prevention Measures

Poshan Abhiyan

• It is a multi-ministerial convergence mission with the goal of making India malnutrition-free by 2022.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan is being implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD).

POSHAN 2.0 (Prime Minister's Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition):

• It now includes the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme, which targets adolescent girls, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and children under the age of three.

Integrated Child Development Services:

• It is one of the world's largest and most unique early childhood care and development programmes.
• Beneficiaries of the Scheme include children aged 0 to 6, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.
• The implementing agency is the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Mid-day Meal Scheme:

• The Mid-day Meal Scheme is an Indian school meal programme designed to improve the nutritional status of school-age children.
• It applies to all students in Classes 1–8 of government schools, government-aided schools, special training centres, and madrasas supported by the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.

National Food Security Mission:

• The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare launched it as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in 2007-08.
• It focuses on increasing sustainable crop production through area expansion and productivity enhancement.

National Nutrition Initiative:

• It is the government's flagship nutrition programme for children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.
• Aim: To reduce stunting and wasting among children by 2% per year (total 6% until 2022) and anaemia by 3% per year (total 9% until 2022) among children, adolescent girls, pregnant women, and lactating mothers.
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development is in charge of implementation.

Challenges while addressing the malnutrition problem:

• Inadequate funding and implementation: There are still gaps in how existing centrally sponsored schemes are funded and implemented.
• Budgets are being allocated that are nowhere near the magnitude required to improve nutrition in the country.
• Manpower constraints: In Jharkhand, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan, more than half of the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) positions were vacant, indicating severe manpower constraints in successfully implementing such an important scheme.
• There is no routine in social audits: Social audits, which are intended to allow for community oversight of the quality of services provided in schools, are not performed on a regular basis.
• Cash transfer issues: Cash transfers appear to be a popular solution for several social sector interventions in India today, including the health and nutrition sectors.

Suggestions and future plans:

• Need for a comprehensive programme: If the intergenerational nature of malnutrition is to be addressed, a comprehensive programme targeting adolescent girls is required.
• Cash transfers can also be used to incentivize behavioural changes such as seeking more institutional support.
• Food rations and special supplements for the target population of pregnant and lactating mothers, infants, and young children are critical.
• Repairing pre-existing schemes: Fixing existing programmes is the obvious solution to India's multifaceted nutrition challenge.
• Getting the existing schemes right will necessitate greater participation of local government and community groups in the design and delivery of tailored nutrition interventions

9^th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus

The Indian Defence Minister recently attended the 9th ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) Plus in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

What are the main points of India's speech?

• Terrorism: India has called for immediate and resolute global efforts to combat transnational and cross-border terrorism, describing it as the most serious threat to regional and global security.
• Other Security Concerns: India raised other security concerns arising from the global Covid-19 pandemic, such as energy and food security, at the forum.
• On Maritime Security, India advocates for a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific region and calls for peaceful dispute resolution while respecting all nations' sovereignty and territorial integrity.
• It was also stated that the ongoing ASEAN-China negotiations on the South China Sea Code of Conduct should be fully consistent with international law, specifically the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and should not jeopardise the legitimate rights and interests of nations that are not parties to these discussions.

What is ADMM-Plus?

• The ADMM-Plus was established in 2007 at the 2nd ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) in Singapore.
• The first ADMM-Plus meeting was held in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2010.
• Brunei presided over the ADMM Plus forum in 2021.
• It is an annual gathering of the Defense Ministers of the ten ASEAN member countries and the eight dialogue partner countries.

ASEAN:

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional organisation founded to promote political and social stability amid rising tensions among Asia's post-colonial states.

Membership:

• The ADMM-Plus countries include ten ASEAN Member States (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia) and eight Plus countries, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States.
• Its goal is to promote mutual trust and confidence among defence establishments through increased dialogue and transparency.
• Cooperation areas include maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping operations, and military medicine.

CITES 19th Conference & Pangolins

To help save the species, the 19th Conference of Parties (COP19) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) urged countries to remove references to pangolin parts and derivatives from official pharmacopoeia (drug-making).

Regarding Pangolin:

• The pangolin is the world's most trafficked animal.
• Pangolins are mammal-like creatures. They are the only mammals that are entirely covered in scales, which they use to protect themselves from predators in the wild.
• Pangolins, also known as the scaly anteater, eat ants, termites, and larvae.
• Eight pangolin species are found on two continents: Asia and Africa.
• They are classified as Vulnerable to Critically Endangered.
• India is home to the Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla).

Protection:

• It is listed under the Schedule I Part I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• It is listed in Appendix I of CITES in accordance with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List.
• Indian pangolin – Endangered; Chinese pangolin – Critically Endangered.

Geographical location:

• There are eight species of pangolins in the world of which the Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) and the Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) are found in India.
• The Indian Pangolin is distributed in other parts of the country as well as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Threats:

• Poaching for its meat and scales, which are used and consumed by local people, but are also increasingly traded internationally

World AIDS Day

Every year on December 1st, World AIDS Day is observed.

World AIDS Day 2022

• On December 1, 1988, the World Health Organization (WHO) established World AIDS Day.
• Its goal is to encourage information sharing among local and national governments, international organisations, and private citizens.
• This year's World AIDS Day theme is "Equalize."

Importance:

• The HIV virus infects approximately 38 million people worldwide.
• Despite the fact that the virus was discovered in 1984, it has claimed the lives of nearly 35 million people.

About Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS):

Meaning:

• Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Transmission:

• It can be transmitted through the use of a contaminated syringe for medical purposes or shared activities such as injecting drugs into the bloodstream, sexual intercourse which is not protected or from an infected mother to child during pregnancy, birth or through breastfeeding.

Prevention:

• There is no cure for HIV/AIDS.
• Prevention is the best way to safeguard oneself against AIDS.
• Health experts insist upon using protection during sex and getting tested for HIV before planning a family.
• Effective antiretroviral treatment (ART) prevents HIV transmission from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding.
• ART does not cure HIV but reduces its replication in the blood, thereby reducing the viral load to an undetectable level.

Steps taken by the Government of India:

National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) (Central Sector Scheme)

• India has achieved the 6th Millennium Development Goal (MDG 6) of halting and reversing the HIV epidemic.
• Prevention from Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT) program

HIV/AIDS Act 2017

• It prohibits discrimination or unfair treatment of HIV-infected people on any grounds.

PALS (PPTCT ART Linkages Software) System

• It is a Repository of HIV-positive pregnant women.

90:90:90 strategy

• This was adopted by UNAIDS (90% (diagnosed, treatment (by anti-retroviral treatment (ART)) & suppression)) by 2020.
• Extended by 10 years with the goal post of 95-95-95.
• Social Awareness through workshops.

Viral Load Testing Facilities:

• They have been scaled up, and HIV counseling, testing, and community-based screening for early diagnosis have been ramped up to achieve the target of Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV.

Project Sunrise:

• It was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (2016) to tackle the rising HIV prevalence in north-eastern states.