DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS
1 – WHO Pre-approval for the R21/Matrix-M Immunisation: GS II – Health related issues:
Context:
- The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently approved the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine to its list of prequalified vaccinations, marking a significant advancement in the global fight against malaria.
- This vaccine, created by Oxford University and produced by the Serum Institute of India, has the potential to shield kids from childhood malaria.
- The RTS, S/AS01 vaccine was the first malaria vaccine to get WHO prequalification; the R21/Matrix-M vaccine became the second.
What Role Does WHO Prequalification Play?
- A strong guarantee of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness is provided by the R21 vaccine’s WHO prequalification.
- Since WHO uses strict worldwide standards to assess products’ safety, efficacy, and manufacturing conformity, products that receive WHO prequalification acquire reputation and are more easily accepted in international markets.
- International organisations like the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) frequently require WHO prequalification as a requirement before they will purchase anything.
- It makes a vaccine more likely to be incorporated into international immunisation campaigns, guaranteeing a broader distribution.
- The process of obtaining Gavi sponsorship through WHO prequalification is crucial in facilitating the execution of immunisation campaigns in areas with restricted funding.
- The Vaccine Alliance, or Gavi, was established in 2000 to provide financial assistance for the distribution of vaccines in underdeveloped nations.
What is malaria?
About:
- It is a potentially fatal blood disease spread by mosquitoes that is brought on by Plasmodium parasites. It can be treated and prevented.
- primarily found in South America, Asia, and Africa’s tropical and subtropical climates.
- Through bites from infected female Anopheles mosquitoes, malaria is transmitted. The parasites proliferate in the liver and then target red blood cells.
- Plasmodium vivax and falciparum pose the greatest risk to human health out of the five parasite species that cause malaria.
Burden of Malaria:
- Children in Africa bear a disproportionately heavy burden from malaria, since the disease claims the lives of around half a million children there annually.
- An estimated 249 million instances of malaria and 6,08,00 malaria-related fatalities occurred worldwide in 85 countries in 2022.
Source The Hindu
2 – Kakori Train Case and the Hindustan Republican Association – GS I – Modern Indian History:
Context:
- Ninety-six years ago, in December 1927, two years after the Kakori Train Action, in which members of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) robbed a train carrying money to the British government, four revolutionaries of the Indian independence struggle were hung.
- It rekindles thoughts on their crucial roles in determining the trajectory of India’s freedom struggle and serves as a moving reminder of their bravery and sacrifice.
- What Makes the Hindustan Republican Association Important?
- Background: In 1920, Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, promoting nonviolence and asking Indians to stop supporting British initiatives in their country.
- But with the Chauri Chaura Incident of 1922, when demonstrators were killed by police firing and policemen were killed in a mob violence that followed, the movement’s course changed.
- Gandhi quickly put an end to the movement in spite of internal opposition within the INC.
- Foundation: A group of young men who formed the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) were disillusioned by the decision to end the Non-Cooperation Movement.
- Among the group’s founders were Ashfaqulla Khan and Ram Prasad Bismil, both of whom had a gift for poetry. Trade unionist Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee and Sachindra Nath Bakshi were among the others.
- The HRA was also joined by notables like Bhagat Singh and Chandra Shekhar Azad.
- Manifesto: Their manifesto, Krantikari (Revolutionary), was published on January 1st, 1925. It declared the goal of the revolutionary party, which is to organise an armed revolution in order to build a federal Republic of the United States of India.
- The revolutionaries were described as neither anarchists nor terrorists; they rejected terrorism as a goal in itself but acknowledged it as a powerful form of retaliation when needed.
- The goal of HRA was to establish a socialist republic with universal suffrage and a focus on eliminating laws that permit human exploitation.
- Evolution of HRA: In 1928, a move towards socialist ideals caused HRA to change its name to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA), extending its scope beyond political independence to include socioeconomic equality.
- The HSRA, under the leadership of leaders like Bhagat Singh, combined socialist ideas with nationalist goals, changing the course of India’s independence movement.
- What incident was the Kakori Train Action?
- In August of 1925, the HRA’s first significant action was the train heist at Kakori. The Eighth Down Train operated between Lucknow and Shahjahanpur.
- A revolutionary named Rajendranath Lahiri overpowered the guard and pulled the emergency chain to stop the train as it got closer to Kakori. Treasury bags containing public cash were being transported by rail to be placed in the British Treasury in Lucknow.
- Since the revolutionaries felt that the money really belonged to the Indians anyway, they intended to steal it.
- Their goal was to raise awareness of the HRA’s work and mission while also providing funding for it.
- Many HRA members were arrested as a result of the severe crackdown that the British government initiated.
- Of the forty people who were taken into custody, four were given the death penalty (Rajendranath Lahiri on December 17 and Ashfaqullah Khan, Ram Prasad Bismil, and Thakur Roshan Singh on December 19); the remaining individuals were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
- The sole notable leader of the HRA to avoid being apprehended was Chandrashekhar Azad.
Source The Hindu
3 – Sahitya Akademi Awards 2023: GS II – Government Policies and Interventions:
Context:
- The Sahitya Akademi recently revealed the Sahitya Akademi Award 2023 in twenty-four languages.
- This year, the Sahitya Akademi Awards have been won by nine poetry volumes, six novels, five short story collections, three essays, and one literary study.
- The winners will get the reward in the shape of a shawl, RS 1,000,000, and a coffin with an engraved copper plaque.
The Sahitya Akademi Award: What is it?
About:
- The Sahitya Akademi Prize, which was founded in 1954, is a literary honour given out every year by India’s National Academy of Letters, Sahitya Akademi.
- Every year, Akademi bestows 24 awards for literary works written in the languages it has acknowledged, and an equal number of awards are given to literary translations into and out of Indian languages.
- The Sahitya Akademi has accepted English and Rajasthani as languages in which its programme may be executed, in addition to the 22 languages listed in the Indian Constitution.
- After the Jnanpith prize, the Sahitya Akademi award is the second-highest literary honour given by the Indian government.
Selection Criteria for the Recipient:
- The writer needs to be an Indian national.
- A book or other work that qualifies for the award must make a significant addition to the language and literature of its genre.
- When two or more books are determined to have comparable worth, factors such as the writers’ standing and overall literary contribution will be taken into account when the award is announced.
Additional Sahitya Akademi Honours:
- The Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puraskar is awarded to a writer on the basis of their overall contribution to children’s literature, with a focus on works that were originally published in the five years before to the award year.
- Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar is associated with literary works authored by writers under the age of thirty-five.
Source The Hindu
4 – Kraft Process: A Craft of Paper Makers: GS I – Culture-related issues:
- Wood chips are converted into cellulose fibres via the kraft process, which is subsequently used to manufacture paper and other common products.
- The wood chips are treated chemically at high temperatures using water, sodium hydroxide, and sodium sulphide.
- White liquor, which is produced by mixing sodium hydroxide and sodium sulphide, destroys the bonds that hold the lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose in the wood chips together.
- The strongest paper produced by this process, which is the most widely used method of producing paper, is identified by its sulphidity, which indicates its relative sulphur concentration.
- This environmentally unfriendly process releases heavy metals, dissolved carbon, lignin, and alcohol ions into the water.
Source The Hindu
