Cabinet approves addition of four tribes to ST list (GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the addition of four tribes to the list of Scheduled Tribes, including those from Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh.
- Demands for inclusion of the communities have been pending for decades.
Key Highlights:
- The Hatti tribe in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmour district in Himachal Pradesh, the Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran hill tribes of Tamil Nadu and the Binjhia in Chhattisgarh, who were listed as ST in Jharkhand and Odisha but not in Chhattisgarh, were the communities newly added to the list.
- Further, the Cabinet approved a proposal to bring the Gond community residing in 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, under the ST list from the Scheduled Caste list.
- This includes the five subcategories of the Gond community (Dhuria, Nayak, Ojha, Pathari, and Rajgond).
- Gonds are one of the largest tribal groups in the world.
Synonyms for tribes:
- The Cabinet had approved the inclusion of synonyms for 11 tribes in Chhattisgarh and one tribe in Karnataka so that variations in their spellings and pronunciations do not result in people being left out of beneficiary schemes.
- The Cabinet approved ‘Betta-Kuruba’ as a synonym for the KaduKuruba tribe in Karnataka.
- In Chhattisgarh, the Cabinet approved synonyms for tribes like the Bharia (variations added include Bhumia and Bhuyian), Gadhwa (Gadwa), Dhanwar (Dhanawar, Dhanuwar), Nagesia (Nagasia, Kisan), and Pondh (Pond), among others.
How a tribe is included in ST List?
- The Tribal Affairs Minister explained that the process to include tribes in the ST list begins with the recommendation from the respective State governments, which are then sent to the Tribal Affairs Ministry, which reviews and sends them to the Registrar General of India for approval.
- This is followed by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes’ approval before the list is sent to the Cabinet for a final decision.
Background:
- The demand for the Binjhia tribe to be added to the ST list in Chhattisgarh had been pending for around 15 years while the Hatti tribe had been seeking their inclusion for around 50 years.
- Like the Binjhia community, the Hatti tribe had been in the ST list in neighbouringUttarakhand but not in Himachal Pradesh.
- The Hatti community will benefit around 1.6 lakh people of this area-specific tribe in Himachal Pradesh, who will be able to avail benefits meant for members of STs after the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022, becomes an Act.
Alabama wants nitrogen hypoxia for executions in death sentences
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Alabama is readying a new, untried execution method to carry out its death sentences- nitrogen hypoxia. The method was approved by the state in 2018 but it has not yet been used or tested.
- A deputy state attorney general told a U.S. district judge that it is 'very likely' the method will be available for the execution of Alan Eugene Miller.
Why nitrogen will be used?
- Alan Eugene Miller, was convicted of killing three men in a workplace shooting in 1999.
- The disclosure of the possibility of using the new method for executing death sentences came to the fore during a court hearing.
- Alan Eugene Miller requested nitrogen as his execution method rather than lethal injection.He further said that he 'disliked' needles because of painful attempts at drawing blood, adding that nitrogen gas seemed better than lethal injection.
What is Nitrogen Hypoxia?
- Nitrogen hypoxia is supposed to cause death by replacing oxygen with nitrogen. In this proposed execution method, death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving his or her body of oxygen causing asphyxiation.
- This method has been authorised by Alabama, Oklahoma and Mississippi, for executions but has never been used. However, lethal injection remains the state’s primary execution method.
How does this work?
- In this method, the idea is to change the composition of the air to 100 per cent nitrogen. When inhaled, this would cause the inmate to pass out and then die from lack of oxygen.
- More and more states have been proposing hypoxia as an alternate execution method because of difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs.
What are the concerns?
- Critics have likened the untested method to human experimentation.
- The American Veterinary Medical Association’s euthanasia guidelines say inert gas hypoxia is acceptable, under certain conditions, for the euthanasia of chickens, turkeys and pigs but is not recommended for other mammals such as rats.
IISc researchers develop new vaccine candidate against TB
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru have developed a new vaccine candidate against Tuberculosis (TB).
- They have used spherical vesicles secreted by bacteria coated on gold nanoparticles which can then be delivered to immune cells.
Current vaccine in India:
- So far, India has been using the BacilleCalmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine to fight TB.
- It contains a weakened form of the disease-causing bacterium, and when injected into our bloodstream, it triggers the production of antibodies that can help fight the disease.
New vaccine:
- They used Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs), which are spherical membrane-bound particles released by some bacteria, and contain an assortment of proteins and lipids which could induce an immune response against the pathogen.
- The subunit vaccine candidate contains only parts of the infectious bacterium to stimulate an immune response.
- While subunit vaccines typically only contain a limited number of antigens bacterial proteins that can elicit an immune response in the host, OMVs contain a variety of antigens and can induce a better immune response.
Outcome:
- While Mycobacterium-derived OMVs are unstable, researchers claim that OMVs coated on gold nanoparticles were found to be uniform in size and stable and that human immune cells showed a higher uptake of OMV-AuNPs than of OMVs or gold nanoparticles alone.
- Researchers forced the OMVs and the gold nanoparticles together to synthesize OMV-AuNPsthrough a 100 nm filter.
- They then treated immune cells that were cultured in the lab with OMVs derived from Mycobacterium smegmatis, a related bacterial species that does not cause disease in humans.
What’s next?
- They now plans to develop gold-coated OMVs derived directly from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and test them on animal models to take the results forward for clinical applications.
- They are hopeful that the new vaccine can trigger an immune response and offer protection against the disease.
Set up new regulator for medical devices, says panel
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Why in news?
- Recently, department related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health, headed by Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav presented the 138th report on the subject “Medical devices: regulations and control”.
Key Highlights:
- It has recommended more certified medical devicestesting laboratories, robust IT-enabled feedback- driven post-market surveillance system and medical device registry, particularly for implants to ensure traceability of patients to assess performance of implants.
- India has only 18 certified medical device testing laboratories that have been approved by the CDSCO and that is grossly insufficient keeping in view the size of the country.
- The committee is of the considered opinion that having adequate common infrastructure including accredited laboratories in various regions of the country for standard testing will significantly encourage local manufacturers to get their products tested for standards and such measures undertaken will also help in reducing the cost of production which ultimately will improve the availability and affordability of medical devices in the market.
- There is a dire need for developing a robust IT-enabled feedback-driven post- market surveillance system for medical devices to evaluate their efficiency.
- The committee recommends the Ministry to work in synergy with State governments and impart the necessary skills to the local medical device officers and also devise a mechanism to regularly designate State Medical personnel as Medical Device/Medical Device Testing Officers so that the mandate of the legislation can be implemented effectively.
- It has recommended that the Ministry should allow the new regulator to involve institutions such as IISC, CSIR, DRDO and network of IITs to test medical devices for safety and efficacy.
Single-window clearance:
- It has highlighted the multiplicity of regulations, and said that a single-window clearing platform for application of licence for manufacturing, export, import shall integrate all these bodies involved in the regulation of medical devices.
- A single-window clearance for all the departments/Ministries would boost investment and would also reduce the time required for obtaining approvals from different Departments/Ministries.
Recommendations on CDSCO:
- It said that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) is falling short in effectively regulating the medical devices industry. The organisation in its existing structure and expertise is more pharma-centric.
- The committee has observed that the CDSCO was originally set up to regulate pharma, related segments and medical devices.
- It has recommended that the new legislation should set up a new regulator at different levels for regulating the medical devices industry.
After 33 years, Kashmirs Manasbal Lake opens for NCC cadets
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
Why in news?
- Recently, over 100 National Cadet Corps (NCC) cadets, both from J&K and outside, participated in exercises like sailing and boat pulling at Manasbal Lake.
Details:
- Central Kashmir’s Manasbal Lake is once again open for training drills, more than three decades after raging militancy forced the Navy to abandon it.
- Training in the area was suspended during the inception of militancy in the 1990s.
- The exercises, which also saw participation of female cadets, may help students from various parts of J&K interact with each other.
About Manasbal Lake:
- The Manasbal Lake, located in central Kashmir's Safapora area in Ganderbal district, is a freshwater lake.
- The site was abandoned by the Navy in 1989.
- The NCC has been working in J&K since 1965 and would train cadets on the shores of Dal lake and Manasbal Lake.
Way Forward:
- The security situation forced to shift the training module outside the Valley. However, such exercises here will motivate locals to join the NCC in the future.
