8 April 2024

• Energy: India's National Green Hydrogen Mission targets 5 million metric tonnes of production by 2030, with Rs 496 crore allocated until 2025-26.
• Health: India achieved Kala-azar elimination in 2023. Only 520 cases were reported, the lowest since the programme began in 2003.
• History: A new find of 3,730 lead coins at Phanigiri Buddhist site in Andhra Pradesh sheds light on the Ikshvaku dynasty (3rd-4th century CE).
• Science: A total solar eclipse crosses Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Such an event occurs at any given location only once every 400 years.
• Defence: Akashteer, an indigenously developed command-and-control system for air defence, is fielded by the Indian Army.

GS area: Energy, Economy

India's National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) is the policy backbone for developing a domestic green hydrogen industry.

Key facts:

• Definition: Green hydrogen contains fewer than 2 kg of CO₂ equivalent per kg of hydrogen produced. Grey hydrogen (from natural gas reforming) produces about 10 kg CO₂ per kg of hydrogen.
• Current share: Green hydrogen is less than 1 per cent of global hydrogen production.
• IEA estimate: 830 million tonnes of CO₂ savings per year if green hydrogen scales to projections.
• India's target: 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of green hydrogen production by 2030.
• Renewable energy target to support this: 125 GW of renewable capacity addition by 2030.
• Energy loss: About 30 per cent of renewable electricity input is lost in the electrolysis process.
• Jobs: A global study projects hydrogen employment growing from 11 million (2018) to 42 million by 2050.
• Key initiatives in India:
  • Oil India Limited operates a 99 per cent pure green hydrogen plant in Jorhat, Assam.
  • NTPC has run a green hydrogen blending operation in PNG network at Kawas, Surat.
  • The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board approved 5 per cent blending, scalable to 20 per cent.
• Nodal agency: Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
• Strategic Hydrogen Innovation Partnership (SHIP): Part of the NGHM, facilitates R&D collaboration.

Static linkage: energy policy, climate change, industrial policy.

GS area: Health, Governance

India declared it had achieved the Kala-azar elimination target in 2023 with only 520 reported cases, the fewest since the national programme began.

Key facts:

• Kala-azar (Visceral Leishmaniasis): Caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania donovani, transmitted by the phlebotomine sandfly.
• Symptoms: Fever, weight loss, enlarged spleen and liver. Fatal if untreated.
• Endemic states: Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh have historically accounted for almost all of India's burden.
• Elimination standard: Fewer than one case per 10,000 population at the sub-district level.
• Programme: National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), which runs the Kala-azar response since 2003-04.
• Treatment: Liposomal amphotericin B, administered as a single dose by the government, is the standard treatment.
• India's earlier target: Originally 2010, then extended multiple times to 2023.

Static linkage: health policy, disease control, Bihar and eastern India.

GS area: Ancient Indian History

Archaeologists found 3,730 lead coins at the Phanigiri Buddhist monastery site in Andhra Pradesh, adding to knowledge of the Ikshvaku dynasty.

Key facts:

• Period: 3rd to 4th centuries CE.
• Capital: Vijayapuri, modern Nagarjunakonda, on the eastern Krishna River valley in Andhra Pradesh.
• Coin details: The obverse shows an elephant symbol; the reverse shows the Ujjain symbol (a cross with four circles at the ends).
• Religious context: The Ikshvakus practised Vedic Shaivism officially but were patrons of Buddhism. Phanigiri was a flourishing Buddhist monastery under them.
• Nagarjunakonda: Named after the Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna who is associated with the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism. The site was submerged under the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir in the 1960s and is now an island museum.

Static linkage: ancient history, Buddhist heritage, Andhra Pradesh.

GS area: Science and Technology, Physical Geography

A total solar eclipse tracked across Mexico, the United States, and Canada on 8 April 2024, with millions watching along the path of totality.

Key facts:

• Mechanism: A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's disk completely covers the Sun. This is possible only because the Moon's apparent size matches the Sun's despite the Sun being about 400 times larger, because it is also about 400 times farther away.
• Path of totality: The narrow band (roughly 100-180 km wide) where the Moon's umbra touches Earth's surface. Observers here experience complete darkness for a few minutes.
• Frequency: A given location experiences a total eclipse only once in about 400 years on average.
• Corona: The Sun's outer atmosphere, normally invisible, becomes visible during totality. Scientists use total eclipses to study coronal mass ejections.
• Next total eclipse visible from India: Not until the 2030s. India last saw one in 1995.

Static linkage: physical geography (Earth-Moon-Sun geometry), science.

GS area: Internal Security, Science and Technology

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) developed Akashteer as an automated command- and-control system for the Indian Army's low-level air defence network.

Key facts:

• Function: Monitors low-level airspace, integrates radar inputs from multiple sensors, and automates cueing of air defence weapons.
• Significance: Reduces reaction time from detection to engagement compared to manual systems.
• Developer: BEL (Bharat Electronics Limited), a Defence PSU under the Ministry of Defence.
• Initiative: Part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat push. The Army declared 2024 as its "Year of Technological Absorption."
• Integration: Works with the Akash missile system and other short-range air defence assets.

Static linkage: defence technology, Atmanirbhar Bharat.

GS area: Environment, Governance

The Maharashtra government deployed 210 artificial reefs off Worli Koliwada in Mumbai to restore marine habitat.

Key facts:

• Materials: Recycled cement and steel modules.
• Each module: Adds 50 to 60 sq ft of sea surface area for marine organisms.
• Benefits: Creates hard substrate for coral and sponge growth, provides breeding grounds, attracts fish populations, and supports the livelihoods of traditional fishing communities.
• Worli Koliwada: A traditional Koli fishing community located on the western coast of Mumbai.
• Global context: Artificial reefs are used worldwide to rehabilitate marine ecosystems degraded by trawling, dredging, and sedimentation.

Static linkage: environment, biodiversity, Mumbai.

• Doping in Indian sports: India's positive test rate for doping stands at 3.2 per cent (2022 WADA data). Wrestling has the highest rate at over 6 per cent. The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) was established in 2005 and operates under the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
• Criollo cattle: Native to the Americas via Iberian ancestry, Criollo breeds show superior heat tolerance, disease resistance, and reproduction rates, making them valuable in climate adaptation strategies for livestock.
• Jellyfish bloom at Visakhapatnam: Pelagia noctiluca (mauve stinger jellyfish) appeared in unusual numbers off the Visakhapatnam coast. Rising ocean temperatures and reduced salinity gradients promote jellyfish proliferation.