1. MEASLES IN INDIA (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Social Issues - Health)

Context: An estimated 11 lakh children in India missed their crucial first dose of measles vaccine in 2022, according to a report by the World Health Organization and US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

• This puts India among 10 countries with the highest number of children who did not receive the first shot.

Measles:

• About: A communicable disease that is highly contagious and caused by virus. This means it's very easily spread to others.
• Causes: It is caused by morbillivirus, which is mostly seen in the winter and spring.
• Measles virus: Belongs to the paramyxovirus family and it is normally passed through direct contact and through the air.
• Spread: It is spread through droplets of nose, throat or mouth of an infected person.
• Measles generally appear only 10 - 12 days after the infection.
• Symptoms: High fever, Runny nose, Bloodshot eyes, Tiny white spots on the inside of the mouth, Rashes on the face, upper neck that spread downwards (this appears after several days).
• Treatment: Routine measles vaccination for children, combined with mass immunization campaigns in countries with low routine coverage, are key public health strategies to reduce global measles deaths.
• Vaccine: The measles vaccine was introduced in 1963.

o The vaccine for the disease are provided in the form of measles-rubella (MR), measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), or measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) combination. The first dose of MMR is given at the age of 12 – 15 months, and the second one at 4 – 6 years.

o Adults and teenagers can also take MMR vaccinations as required.

• Preventive efforts:

o Global: Under the Global Vaccine Action Plan, measles and rubella are targeted for elimination in five WHO Regions by 2020. WHO is the lead technical agency responsible for coordination of immunization and surveillance activities supporting all countries to achieve this goal.

• India: The Government of India has launched the Measles and Rubella Vaccination Campaign in 2017 with a view to providing measles-rubella (MR) vaccines to children between the ages of nine months and under 15 years.

---

2. TECHNICAL TEXTILES (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Economy)

Context: As per the Joint Secretary (Ministry of Textile), India’s market for technical textiles is targeted to touch $40 billion by 2030 from the current $23 billion.

Technical Textile

• About: Technical textiles or engineered textiles are textile material and products manufactured primarily for technical performance and functional properties rather than aesthetic and decorative characteristics.

o Technical textiles is a fast-growing sub-segment and is a ‘sunrise industry’ that finds its usage in an array of sectors.

• Applications: Clothing, agriculture, medical, infrastructure, automotive, aerospace, sports, defence and packaging etc.
• Contribution: Technical textile accounts for approximately 13% of India’s total textile and apparel market and contributes to India’s GDP at 0.7%.
• Step taken: A National Technical Textiles Mission (2020) has been set up that aims at an average growth rate of 15-20% to increase the domestic market size of technical textiles to $ 40-50 Bn by the year 2024; through:

o Market development, market promotion, international technical collaborations, investment promotions and Make in India initiative.

National Technical Textiles Mission

• The focus of the Mission is for developing on usage of technical textiles in various flagship missions and programmes (like Ayushman Bharat, Jal Jeevan, Agriculture etc), including strategic sectors.
• Implementation period: 4 years (2020-21 to 2023-24).

---

3. IPEF (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – IR)

Context: The 3rd Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Ministerial Meeting held in San Francisco, California.

• At this Ministerial Meeting, negotiations under the IPEF Pillar-III (Clean Economy), Pillar IV (Fair Economy) and the Agreement on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (which seeks to establish a ministerial-level council and a commission) were substantially concluded.

Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF)

• History: The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) was launched by United States (US) in Tokyo at the QUAD summit on May 23, 2022.
• Aim: The framework intends to “advance resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness, and competitiveness” in these economies. 

o Not an FTA: The US has repeatedly reiterated that the IPEF is not a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and Comprehensive and Progressive Transpacific Partnership (CPTPP).

• Members: IPEF has 14 partner countries including Australia, Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam & USA.
• Pillars: The framework is structured around four pillars relating to: Trade (Pillar I); Supply Chains (Pillar II); Clean Economy (Pillar III); and Fair Economy (Pillar IV).

o India had joined Pillars II to IV of IPEF while it has an observer status in Pillar-I.

---

4. STATE OF CRYOSPHERE REPORT (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Environment)

Context: Nearly all tropical glaciers, most mid-latitude glaciers and polar regions will disappear even if the world manages to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, above the preindustrial era, according to the State of the Cryosphere 2023 report.

Key findings of the report

• The Himalayas are expected to lose 50% of today’s ice if global average temperatures touch 2°C.
• The impacts are already being felt at the current temperature rise of 1.2°C as many glaciers of the northern Andes, East Africa, and Indonesia are disappearing rapidly.
• Sea ice around Antarctica hit an all-time low summer and winter record this year. Water temperatures in parts of the Arctic and North Atlantic were 4-6°C higher than normal.
• The atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were 50 per cent above pre-industrial levels in 2023.
• Ice sheets in Greenland and parts of Antarctica could contribute between 12-20 metres of sea-level rise at 2°C. This 2°C will result in extensive, potentially rapid, irreversible sea-level rise from Earth’s ice sheets.
• Both 2°C and 1.5°C could spell doom for permafrost.

Cryosphere

• The cryosphere contains the frozen parts of the planet. It includes snow and ice on land, ice caps, glaciers, permafrost, and sea ice. This sphere helps maintain Earth's climate by reflecting incoming solar radiation back into space.

Permafrost

• It is a ground that stays frozen for two consecutive years.  These permanently frozen grounds are most common in regions with high mountains and in Earth's higher latitudes—near the North and South Poles.
• When permafrost thaws, it releases CO2 and methane emissions, which will cause a spike in temperatures even if human emissions reach zero.

---

5. NBFCs (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Economy)

Context: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently announced that it has increased the risk weights in respect of consumer credit exposure of commercial banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) by 25 percentage points to 125 per cent. 

Non-banking finance companies (NBFCs)

• About: NBFC is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/stocks/bonds etc.

o However, it should not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture activity, industrial activity, purchase or sale of any goods (other than securities) or providing any services and sale/purchase/construction of immovable property.

• Difference between banks & NBFCs:

o NBFC cannot accept demand deposits;

o NBFCs do not form part of the payment and settlement system and cannot issue cheques drawn on itself;

o Deposit insurance facility of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation is not available to depositors of NBFCs, unlike in case of banks.

• Systemically important NBFCs: NBFCs whose asset size is of ₹ 500 cr or more as per last audited balance sheet.
• Registration & Regulations: Depending upon the type of functioning, different NBFCs are differently regulated as mentioned in the image.

---

6. 3-D PRINITING (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Sci & Tech)

Context: Today, an organ can be printed in a laboratory, with perfect specifications matching the patients’ needs and successfully implanted in his body. This is the most recent and best application of 3-Dimensional Printing technology currently in use, though this technology is certainly not limited to the medical field.

Three-dimensional (3D) Printing:

• Origin: It was Charles Hull, a physicist, who patented the ‘stereolithography’ technique, now commonly known as 3D printing, in 1986.
• Also known as: Additive Manufacturing (AM).
• Meaning: It is defined as the technology that constructs a three-dimensional object by adding material layer by layer.
• Working: It uses computer-aided designing (CAD) to make prototypes or working models of objects by laying down successive layers.
• Material used: Almost anything such as plastic, resin, thermoplastic, metal, fibre, or ceramic etc.

• Applications:

o Consumer products (eyewear, footwear, design, furniture)

o Industrial products (manufacturing tools, prototypes, functional end-use parts)

o Healthcare- dental products, prosthetics

o Architectural scale models & maquettes

o Reconstructing fossils

o Replicating ancient artefacts

o Reconstructing evidence in forensic pathology.

---

7. CLIMATE FINANCE (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Environment)

Context: The New Delhi declaration of G20 countries released in September 2023, captured the importance of providing climate finance to developing countries, Union environment minister recently said at the Environment Minister’s Session during the second edition of Voice of Global South Summit.

Climate Finance

• Definition: It describes the financial resources produced to support initiatives that diminish the effects of global warming and help people adapt to them. This involves public climate finance pledges made by industrialised nations under the UNFCCC, corporate sector investment, and regional resources.

Global Climate Financial Mechanisms

• Global Environmental Facility: The GEF, established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, is a catalyst for action on the environment. Through its strategic investments, the GEF works with partners to tackle the planet's biggest environmental issues.
• Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF): The Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) was established in 2001 to support a work programme to assist Least Developed Country Parties (LDCs) carry out, inter alia, the preparation and implementation of national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs).
• The SCCF, or Special Climate Change Fund: It was created in 2001 to address the specific needs of developing countries under the UNFCCC to adapt to the impact of climate change and increase resilience. 
• The Adaptation Fund (AF): The Adaptation Fund (AF) was established in 2001 to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes in developing country Parties to the Kyoto Protocol that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
• Clean development mechanism: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), defined in Article 12 of the Protocol, allows a country with an emission-reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol (Annex B Party) to implement an emission-reduction project in developing countries.
• The Green Climate Fund (GCF): It was set up in 2010 under the UNFCCC’s financial mechanism with aim to expand collective human action to respond to climate change. 
• The Climate Investment Funds (CIFs): It is a multilateral fund established in 2008 to finance and scale climate pilot projects in developing countries.

---

8. DEEPFAKES (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Sci & Tech)

Context: Prime Minister of India recently flagged the dangers of ‘deepfakes’ and said the developers of artificial intelligence should consider tagging their products to caution people about AI-enabled deception.

Deepfakes

• About: Deepfakes refer to synthetic media, which includes videos, images, or audio recordings generated and altered using advanced artificial intelligence techniques, particularly deep learning algorithms.
• Working: The term 'deepfake' combines 'deep learning' and 'fake.’ It involves:

o The use of deep neural networks that can learn and replicate patterns from extensive datasets.

o It employs a branch of artificial intelligence where if a computer is fed enough data, it can generate fakes which behave much like a real person.

• Regulation:

o India does not have specific laws or regulations that ban or regulate the use of deepfake technology.

o Sections 67 and 67A of the Information Technology Act (2000) related to defamation and publishing explicit material is applied in cases of deepfakes.

o India’s IT Rules, 2021 require that all content reported to be fake or produced using deep fake be taken down by intermediary platforms within 36 hours.

---

9. CARD TOKENISATION (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Economy)

Context: Enhanced security and a reduced risk of data breach have emerged as top benefits of Card on File (CoF) tokenisation for customers and the industry respectively in the backdrop of India issuing over 560 million tokens over the past year, according to a Visa report.

Card Tokenization

• About: Card tokenization is a simple process of anonymizing sensitive information on a recipient’s card (like the card number, expiration date, and security code) with a personalised and unique identifier, or a token, which acts as a stand-in for the actual card data and can be used for all transactions.
• Working: Tokenization begins when consumers enter their card information on a website or mobile application and agree to store their card details by giving explicit consent to the merchant.

o Post-consent, instead of retaining the real card information, the payment gateway or the merchant generates a token through card networks, issuer banks, or specialised tokenization platforms.

o This tokenization technology generates a unique token associated with the card details and every merchant and instantly returns it to the merchant. From then on, the merchant only uses the token, keeping sensitive information out of their systems.

• Advantages of tokenization:

o Security: Tokenization enhances security by replacing sensitive data with unique tokens, reducing the risk of data breaches.

o Compliance: Helps organizations comply with data protection regulations by minimizing the storage and handling of sensitive information.

o Fraud Prevention: Reduces the risk of fraud as tokenized data is meaningless without the corresponding tokenization system.

o Streamlined Transactions: Improves transaction efficiency by using lightweight tokens instead of bulky sensitive data.

o Enhanced Privacy: Protects customer privacy by minimizing the exposure of personal information during transactions.

---

10. DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Governance)

Context: The success and increasing global acknowledgement of the Indian government’s digital public infrastructure (DPI), otherwise known as the India Stack, is prompting New Delhi to offer to share its knowledge and resources with others, especially the Global South.

Digital public infrastructure (DPI)

• About: It is a set of technology building blocks that drive innovation, inclusion, and competition at scale, operating under open, transparent and participatory governance.
• Examples: Internet, powered by common protocols like HTTP, HTML, and SMTP.
• Key Features: It can be developed either as all government or all private.

o Interoperability, security, maintaining registries and continuous updates are its vital aspects.

Initiatives taken by India in digital sphere

• Aadhaar: Launched in 2009, Aadhaar is a 12 digit unique-identity number issued to all Indian residents based on the biometric and demographic data, and acts as a proof of residence.
• Digital India initiative: In 2015, the ‘Digital India’ initiative was launched to improve online infrastructure and increase internet accessibility among citizens.
• PM-WANI: It was launched in 2020 to provide ubiquitous and affordable internet connectivity.
• India Stack: It is an online global public digital goods depository to ensure no one is left behind.

---