04-07-23 Daily-Odisha-OPSC Current Affairs

The April, May, June quarter of 2023, compared to last nine years,has seen a26 % rise in number of human- elephant encounters which resulted in more human kills and injuries than ever before,a rise of 50% above the highest human kills of last year.

According to Wildlife Society of Orissa secretary Dr Biswajit Mohanty, the escalating figures each year also indicate that elephants are straying out of their habitats more often due to huge levels of disturbances caused by quarries and crushers and night movement of trucks and tractors. There is also a lack of adequate forest fodder and amarked shift towards consumption of farm cropsand food grains stored inside villages.

Palm fruits which are their prime source of food during June and July havebecome scarce due to massive felling of palm trees for inter-State trade to Nadu. Dhenkanal, Angul and Deogarh districts have lost thousands of palm trees since the last three years as organised timber traders camp there and decimate the trees.

Dhenkanal has recorded a ten-fold jump in diversion of elephant habitat for black and laterite stone quarries, stone crushers and steel/power Plants between 2011 and 2021. The Wildlife Wing has failed to take any action in view of growing demands to shut down the quarries.

Odisha happens to have a dubious record of more number of human kills among all other States despite an elephant Population of 1,976 compared to Karnatakas 6,049, Assams 5,719, Keralas 3,054 and Tamil Nadus 2,761 as per the last national level census carried out in August, 2017.

Union Minister of Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, announced the introduction of the Bharat 6G Alliance, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at launching the next-generation technology in India following the successful implementation of 5G.

The Bharat 6G Alliance brings together key stakeholders from the public and private sectors, as well as other departments, with a common objective of advancing telecommunications technology and fostering the development of 6G in the country.

In addition to the Bharat 6G Alliance, the government plans to introduce a new wave of telecom reforms in the upcoming weeks. The anticipated arrival of 6G is set to revolutionise Communication by providing speeds nearly 100 times faster than 5G, opening up exciting possibilities for the development of novel communication applications.

The Bharat 6G Alliance will serve as a platform for comprehensive discussions on various facets of emerging telecom technologies and platforms that will shape the next decade. It will facilitate collaboration, knowledge sharing, and strategic planning to ensure India remains at the forefront of technological advancements.

Over 90 million Indians live in households where spending onhealthcareaccounts for more than 10% of their total expenditure. Of these, 31 million live in families where the Health spend is more than a quarter of household expenditure. The proportion of households spending over 10% or 25% of their expenditure on healthcare has gone up between 2017-18 and 2022-23.

This was revealed in theSustainable Development Goals NationalIndicator Framework Progress Report 2023, released recently by thestatistics ministry. Catastrophic health expenditure is defined as health spending exceeding 10% of household consumption expenditure. The third of the United Nation’s Goals (SDG) is to provide universal health coverage (UHC) and to improve financial protection, thus preventing catastrophic spending.UHCincludes securing access to quality healthcare and safe, affordable medicines and Vaccines for everyone.

According to the progress report, the proportion of households where more than 10% of expenditure was on health went up from 4.5% to 6.7% while that of those spending over 25% on healthcare went up from 1.6% to 2.3%.

In 2022-23, the highest proportion of people spending more than 10% or 25% of household expenditure on health were in Kerala, 16% and 6% respectively, followed by Maharashtra where it was 9% and 3% respectively. Kerala also saw the biggest jump in this proportion between 2017-18 and 2022-23. Other states which saw a significant increase are Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana in that order.

According to the National Health Accounts 2019-20, out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) as a proportion of the total health expenditure (68%) was the second highest in Kerala, just below Uttar Pradeshwhere it was 72%. Uttar Pradesh is among the five states with the highest proportion of households spending more than 10% or 25% of their expenditure on health. However, in the case of Karnataka, though OOPE as a proportion of total health expenditure is the lowest among the bigger states (31.8%), the state is among those which have witnessed the highest increase in the proportion of households using more than 10% and 25% of the expenditure on healthcare.

In June 2021, the NITI Aayog estimated that at least 400 million people or about 30% of the Population did not have any financial protection for health, leading to high out-of-pocket expenditure and impoverishment. It also estimated that the actual uncovered population would be higher due to existing coverage gaps in PMJAY and overlaps between schemes.

In 2022, the health ministry had notified the inclusion of coronary stents in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2022, to make the life-saving medical devices more affordable. Doctors say the inclusion of stents in NLEM will help reduce the cost of angioplasty a minimally invasive procedure to open up blocked arteries and thus make it more accessible.

Africa has become the second-largest recipient of credit from India as the country tries to catch up with China in expanding its influence in the resource-rich continent.

Forty-two African nations received about $32 billion or 38% of all credit extended by India in the last decade just a few Percentage points below its neighbors, Harsha Bangari, the managing director ofIndias Export Import Bank saidin an interview.

The bank is an instrument of Indias economic diplomacy, Bangari said, adding that the South Asian nation has also opened up 195 project-based lines of credit worth about $12 billion across Africa, three times the number it has in its own region in the last decade.