WHOs alert against India-made cough syrups (GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert over four cough and cold syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals in India.
- It notified that the same could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in the Gambia.
- The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) of Indiahas launched a probe over the drugs.
Four cough syrups:
- The four cough syrups, Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup, manufactured by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited, Haryana, failed the tests after they were found to have unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants.
What is Diethylene Glycol (DEG)?
- Diethylene Glycol (DEG) or ethylene glycol is toxic to humans when consumed and can prove fatal.
- It can cause kidney and neurological toxicity and has been associated with several cases of mass poisoning when consumed via drugs.
- The chemical is used in antifreeze, brake fluids, cosmetics, and lubricants and causes renal insufficiency and failure and could even lead to coma and death.
- The chemical tastes sweet and is water-insoluble.
- The toxic effects of the chemical include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state, and acute kidney injury.
What’s next?
- WHO in its alert ordered that all batches of these products should be considered unsafe until they can be analyzed by the relevant National Regulatory Authorities and immediately notify WHO if these substandard products are discovered in their respective countries.
- India's CDSCO has taken up the matter and ordered a detailed investigation against the cough and cold syrups produced and exported to The Gambia by Maiden Pharmaceuticals Limited.
World Bank cuts Indias GDP forecast to 6.5%
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- Recently, the World Bank downgraded India's GDP or gross domestic product to 6.5% for the fiscal year 2022-23 from an earlier estimate of 7.5%.
- In the previous year, the Indian economy grew by 8.7%.
Key Highlights:
- In its South Asia Economic Focus report, the World Bank said that the spillovers from the Russia-Ukraine war and global monetary policy tightening will continue to weigh on India’s economic outlook.
- The global tightening of monetary policy that tightens financial markets and not just that it leads to capital outflows in many developing countries, but it also increases interest rates and uncertainty in developing countries which has a negative impact on investment
- The World Bank, however, said that India is recovering stronger than the rest of the world.
- The Indian economy has done especially well in the services sector and especially service exports.
Background:
- This is the third time the World Bank revised its GDP growth forecast for India in FY23. In June, it had slashed its forecast to 7.5%. Earlier in April, it had trimmed the forecast from 8.7% to 8%.
- Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut the economic growth projection for the current fiscal to 7% from the 7.2% estimated earlier on account of extended geopolitical tensions and aggressive monetary policy tightening globally.
2022 Nobel Prize for literature
(Miscellaneous)
Why in news?
- French author Annie Ernaux has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2022.
- She is the 17th woman to win the prestigious prize, out of 119 literature laureates since the first Nobel was awarded in 1901.
About Annie Ernaux:
- She has written more than 20 books, most of them very short, and chronicle events in her life and of those around her. They present uncompromising portraits of sexual encounters, abortion, illness and the deaths of her parents.
- Her debut was Les armoires vides (1974; Cleaned Out, 1990).
- She is known for her deceptively simple novels drawing on personal experience of class and gender. She started out writing autobiographical novels, but soon abandoned fiction in favor of memoirs.
Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021:
- In 2021, the award went to Tanzanian-born novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose work focuses on the plight of refugees and exile, colonialism and racism.
- The award was postponed in 2018 after sex abuse allegations rocked the Swedish Academy, which names the Nobel literature committee, and sparked an exodus of members.
- The academy revamped itself but faced more criticism for giving the 2019 literature award to Austria’s Peter Handke, who has been called an apologist for Serbian war crimes.
Way Forward:
- Annie Ernaux will receive the Nobel from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.
Mawmluh Cave on UNESCOs 'First 100 IUGS Geological Sites' list
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
Why in news?
- Meghalaya’s Mawmluh Cave is now on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) ‘First 100 International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) Geological Sites’ list.
- The caves, which are also calledKrem Mawmluh, are the fourth longest in the Indian subcontinent.
What is IUGS?
- The International Union of Geological Sciences was founded in 1961 with 121 national members. The organisation is represented by over a million geoscientists and is one of the World’s largest scientific organisations.
- The IUGS Secretariat is headquartered in Beijing.
- It collaborates with other organisations to work on topic-specific Commissions, Task Groups, Initiatives and Joint Programmes.
- This year the organisation celebrated its 60th anniversary. The celebrations were supposed to take place in 2021 but were postponed due to the pandemic.
Activities:
- Among its many tasks, the organisation encourages international co-operation and participation in Earth Sciences to give a boost to human welfare.
- With an aim to foster dialogue and communication among different parties who specialise in earth sciences, IUGS organises international projects and meetings, sponsors symposia and scientific field trips as well as produce publications.
- Currently, IUGS is involved in a wide range of activities like identifying the problems of terrestrial and planetary geological processes, encouraging innovations to test new geological concepts, models and methodologies, among other things.
What is an IUGS Geological Heritage Site?
- An IUGS Geological Heritage Site is a key place with geological elements and/or processes of scientific international relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history.
- Under the list, all kinds of geological sites like tectonic, stratigraphical, sedimentological, petrological, mineralogical, hydrogeological paleontological, geomorphological and those related to the history of geological sciences, are considered.
- The scientific community has long demanded the establishment of a global standard for the recognition of geological sites of high international importance.
What makes Mawmluh Cave so special?
- Mawmluh Cave is located about 60 km away from Shillong and was first explored by a British official named Lieutenant Yule back in 1844.
- The cave is named after a small hamlet in Meghalaya. It is the fourth longest cave in the Indian subcontinent with a total length of seven kilometre of cave passages.
- Mawmluh caves contain passages, calcite formations of various kinds and huge caverns. Only one-fourth of the cave is exposed to sunlight while the rest of the cave is shrouded in complete darkness.
- The entrance is located at a height of 10 feet above sea level and is covered with stalagmite structures and other rock formations. There’s a deep pool inside the cave which is formed by five different rivers.
- Researchers from the US studied the growth of stalagmite in the last 50 years. They found that it is one of the major reasons why Meghalaya is known to be the rainiest place on earth.
- Scientists are also studying the stalagmite deposits to help predict monsoon patterns and droughts.
What other places are on the IUGS list?
- IUGS saw the nomination of 181 candidates from 56 countries.
- Two geological sites from Greece have made it to the list: The Petrified Forest of Lesvos and Volcanic Caldera of Santorini.
- The Petrified Forest is a rare fossil forest ecosystem that includes large concentrations of petrified trees and animal fossils that were covered with volcanic material 18 million years ago.
- The shape of Volcanic Caldera was formed more than 3500 years ago, when a volcanic eruption changed the Mediterranean topography forever. The site sees thousands of tourists every year who come to witness the beauty of the place.
