The Extent of Human Land Use

The Neelakurinji was listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 2024

🔆 Mitochondrial Donation Treatment (MDT)
An advanced reproductive technique using healthy mitochondrial DNA from a donor to prevent transmission of mitochondrial diseases.

📍Key Benefits
✅ Prevents inherited diseases – avoids passing mitochondrial disorders.
✅ Genetic continuity – retains parents’ nuclear DNA.
✅ Supports same-sex couples – enables both partners to contribute genetically.
✅ Reduces long-term healthcare costs.
✅ Drives medical innovation – encourages research and new tech.
✅ India status – currently not permitted.

📍Key Concerns
✅ Health risks to donors – egg retrieval is invasive.
✅ Ethical dilemmas – child’s identity, psychological impacts.
✅ Access inequality – risk of exploitation and elite monopoly.
✅ Data gap – limited evidence on safety.
✅ High cost – unaffordable for many.

📍Way Forward
✅ Need for regulatory body, ethical safeguards, and clinical trials before adoption.

🔆 Implications of Ageing

📍 Key Challenges
✅ Shrinking workforce, slowing growth, and rising pension burden
✅ Increased geriatric care demand and healthcare system stress
✅ Breakdown of joint families, elder loneliness, and social insecurity
✅ Need for reform in retirement age, pension systems, and re-skilling

📍 Government Initiatives
✅ National Policy for Older Persons (1999): Ensures rights-based welfare
✅ MWPSC Act (2007): Mandates family support for elders
✅ IPOP: Supports NGO-led elderly services
✅ Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana: Assistive devices for BPL seniors
✅ IGNOAPS: Monthly pensions for 60+ BPL citizens
✅ Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund: Uses unclaimed deposits for elder care

#social_issue #GS1 #GS2 #GS3

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🔬 Applications of Nanotechnology in Health & Medicine

📍 Key Uses

✅ Diagnostics
• Early detection using nanocrystals (e.g., gold nanoparticles in COVID test kits).

✅ Drug Delivery Systems
• Nanoparticles target cancer cells (e.g., Abraxane).
• Smart pills monitor and release drugs.
• Nanorobots assist in surgery and precision delivery.

✅ Regenerative Medicine
• Tissue repair using nanoscaffolds.

✅ Pharmaceuticals
• Enhanced drug stability, bioavailability (e.g., nanocurcumin).

✅ Nanofibres
• Used in wound dressings (e.g., silver bandages for ulcers).

🔆 Issues in Handling Left Wing Extremism/Naxalism

📍 Operational & Strategic Challenges
✅ Negligence of established Standard Operating Procedures (SOP): Leads to security personnel deaths.
➤ Example: In Jan 2025, Naxalites killed 8 DRG personnel + 1 driver in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh.
➤ Insufficient intelligence backup

✅ Structural deficits and deficiencies: IPS officers posted to senior CRPF roles without field experience.

✅ Laundering of funds: Naxal leaders (esp. Bihar, Jharkhand) invest extorted money in movable & immovable properties.

✅ Inefficient technology: Current tech can’t detect deep-planted mines—leads to casualties.

✅ Complex locations: Dense forests & hilly terrain make operations harder.

✅ Delay in acquisition of technology: Out of 157 sanctioned MPVs, only 13 delivered to CAPFs by Ordnance Factory Board.

✅ Unfamiliar area: Central Forces lack local language & terrain knowledge—limits effectiveness.

#security

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🔆 India’s Demographic Dividend

📍 Key Facts
✅ The term “Demographic Dividend” describes economic expansion due to a distribution shift of the population’s age.

✅ India currently has 62.5% of its population between the ages of 15 and 59. This percentage is steadily rising and will reach its peak around 2036 (65%).

✅ Demographic dividend availability began in 2005–2006 and will continue until 2055–2056.

✅ The Economic Survey 2018–19 predicts that India’s Demographic Dividend will reach its peak around 2041 when 59% of the population will be of working age, or 20–59 years old.

✅ India has one of the youngest populations with a median age of just 28 years, compared to China (37 years), Western Europe (45 years), and Japan (49 years).

✅ Bulge in working-age population: India’s working-age population (15–64 years) has grown larger than the dependent population (below 14 and above 65 years) since 2018. This bulge is expected to last till 2055. (UNFPA Report)

#society