Weekly Current Affairs (22nd to 30th September 2023) Part - 1 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Global Report on Hypertension

Context: Recently, during the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) 78th session, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report titled "Global report on hypertension: The race against a silent killer."

• It is the first-ever report by the WHO on the worldwide implications of hypertension, commonly referred to as high blood pressure.

What are the Key Highlights of the Report?

A Global Epidemic:

• One in three adults across the world suffers from hypertension.
• The number of hypertension cases has doubled from 650 million to a staggering 1.3 billion between 1990 and 2019.
• Hypertension affects approximately 33% of adults aged 30-79 worldwide.
• Approximately four out of every five people with hypertension are not adequately treated.

India's Hypertension Burden:

• India alone has an estimated 188.3 million adults aged 30–79 years grappling with hypertension.
• The prevalence of high blood pressure in India is slightly lower than the global average of 31%.
• To reach a 50% control rate, India needs to ensure that an additional 67 million people with hypertension receive effective treatment.
• If the progress scenario were achieved, 4.6 million deaths due to high blood pressure would be averted by 2040.

Inadequate Treatment:

• About 80% of individuals with hypertension do not receive adequate treatment.
• Effective hypertension treatment has the potential to prevent 76 million deaths, 120 million strokes, 79 million heart attacks, and 17 million cases of heart failure by 2050.

Disparities in Treatment Coverage:

• Treatment coverage for hypertension exhibits significant disparities among countries, with high-income nations having a more favourable coverage rate.
• The WHO region of the US leads with a 60% coverage rate, while the African region lags behind at 27%.
• More than three-quarters of adults with hypertension live in low- and middle-income countries.

The Urgency of Timely Treatment:

• Nearly 30% of individuals with uncontrolled hypertension exhibit blood pressure measurements above the threshold warranting urgent treatment.
• Globally, the percentage of adults aged 30–70 taking medication for hypertension has doubled from 22% in 1990 to 42% in 2019.
• Effective treatment coverage has quadrupled during the same period, reaching 21%.

The WHO's Call to Action:

• The WHO calls for prioritising the prevention, early detection, and effective management of hypertension as part of national health benefit packages.

Recommendations:

• There is a need to strengthen hypertension control programs that remain under-prioritized and acutely underfunded.
• Strengthening hypertension control must become an integral part of every country's journey toward universal health coverage.

What is Hypertension?

About:

• Hypertension (high blood pressure) is when the pressure in your blood vessels is too high (140/90 mmHg or higher). It is common but can be serious if not treated.
• Blood pressure is written as two numbers.
• The first (systolic) number represents the pressure in blood vessels when the heart contracts or beats.
• The second (diastolic) number represents the pressure in the vessels when the heart rests between beats.
• World Hypertension Day is celebrated on May 17 every year to promote awareness about hypertension and encourage people to prevent and control this silent killer.

Risk Factors:

• High-salt diets, lack of physical activity, and excessive alcohol consumption are significant contributors to hypertension, and genetics are believed to play a role in high blood pressure as well.

Symptoms:

• Most people with hypertension don’t feel any symptoms. Very high blood pressure can cause headaches, blurred vision, chest pain and other symptoms.

Complications of Uncontrolled Hypertension:

• Severe heart issues, including chest pain, heart attacks, heart failure, and irregular heartbeats, as well as increase the risk of stroke by affecting blood flow to the brain.

Treatment:

• Lifestyle changes like adopting a low-salt diet, weight loss, physical activity, and quitting tobacco etc. and medications.

Initiatives:

Global:

• To achieve the global target to reduce the prevalence of hypertension by 25% by 2025, WHO and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Global Hearts Initiative in 2016.
• The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all.

India:

India Hypertension Control Initiative Program (IHCI):

• Through programmes such as IHCI and the government’s push towards non-communicable disease screening and treatment at the primary healthcare level, India aims to put 75 million patients with hypertension or diabetes on standard care by 2025.

State of Working India 2023

Context: Recently, Azim Premji University's Centre for Sustainable Employment has released the Report titled- "State of Working India 2023" highlighting the State of Indian workforce.

• It covers unemployment rates, women's participation, intergenerational mobility, and caste-wise workforce dynamics.
• The report used various data sources like surveys conducted by the National Statistical Office including Employment-Unemployment Surveys and Periodic Labour Force Surveys along with the India Working Survey.

What are the Highlights of the Report?

Faster Structural Change:

• After stagnating since the 1980s, the share of workers with regular wage or salaried work started increasing in 2004, going from 18% to 25% for men and 10% to 25% for women.
• Between 2004 and 2017, around 3 million regular wage jobs were created annually. Between 2017 and 2019 this jumped to 5 million per year.
• Since 2019, the pace of regular wage jobs creation has decreased due to the growth slowdown and the pandemic.

Gender-Based Earnings Disparities Reduced:

• In 2004, salaried women workers earned 70% of what men earned.
• By 2017 the gap had reduced and women earned 76% of what men did. Since then the gap has remained constant till 2021-22.

Unemployment Rates and Education:

• The overall unemployment rate reduced to 6.6% in 2021-22 from 8.7% in 2017-18.
• However, for graduates under the age of 25, the unemployment rate was strikingly high at 42.3%.
• In contrast, those completing higher secondary education had a lower unemployment rate of 21.4%.

Women’s Workforce Participation:

• Post the Covid-19 Pandemic, 60% of women were self-employed compared to 50% before.
• However, this increase in workforce participation was accompanied by a decline in self-employment earnings, reflecting the pandemic's distressing impact.

Intergenerational Mobility:

• Intergenerational upward mobility has shown an upward trend, indicating socio-economic progress.
• However, this trend is weaker for workers from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes compared to general castes.
• 75.6 % of SC/ST men in casual wage work also had sons involved in casual wage work in 2018. In comparison, the figure stood at 86.5 % in 2004, indicating that sons of casual wage workers belonging to SC/ST category have moved to other kinds of employment, most notably informal regular wage work.

Caste-wise Workforce Dynamics:

• There are changes in caste-wise workforce participation over the years.
• The share of SC workers in casual wage work has significantly reduced, but this reduction is more pronounced in the general caste category.
• For instance, in 2021, 40% of SC workers were involved in casual employment as compared to 13% of general caste workers.
• Furthermore, around 22 % of SC workers were regular wage workers as opposed to 32% of general caste workers.

Economic Growth vs. Employment Generation:

• Economic growth has not proportionately translated into job creation, with the capacity to generate jobs declining as GDP (Gross Domestic Product) increases.
• The transition from agriculture to other sectors has not ensured a shift to salaried employment.

Informal Salaried Work:

• Despite the aspiration for salaried employment, the majority of salaried work is informal, lacking contracts and benefits. Good salaried jobs with proper benefits are becoming less prominent.

Factors Influencing Graduate Unemployment:

• Graduate unemployment could be attributed to high aspirations and wage demands that the economy may not meet. Additionally, graduates from well-off households might have the luxury to remain unemployed.

Gravitational Instabilities and Galaxy Evolution

Context: Recently, a study has been conducted by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), aiming to comprehend the relationship between Gravitational Instabilities and Galaxy Evolution.

Note:

• Gravitational Instabilities refer to a fundamental physical phenomenon that occurs in astrophysical systems, particularly in celestial bodies like galaxies, stars, and planetary systems.
• These instabilities are driven by the force of gravity and play a crucial role in shaping the structure, evolution, and dynamics of these cosmic entities.

What is the Methodology of the Study?

• Researchers compared star formation rates, gas fractions, and time scales for gravitational instability growth in nearby galaxies by analysing the stability levels of a sample of 175 galaxies from the Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curves (SPARC) database.
• The study investigated how stability levels in galaxies are regulated, including the potential role of dark matter. It sought to determine whether stars and gas can self-regulate stability levels.
• They compared stability levels in nearby galaxies with those observed at high redshifts, which are considered precursors to galaxies in the local universe.

Redshift:

• Scientists measure cosmic distances via redshift, the extent to which light is shifted towards the red (lower energy) part of the electromagnetic spectrum during its long journey across the universe.
• The greater the distance, the higher the redshift.

What are the Key Highlights of the Study?

Spiral Galaxies:

• Spiral galaxies, such as the Milky Way, exhibited specific characteristics.
• They had a higher median star formation rate, lower stability, reduced gas fraction, and a smaller time scale for the growth of gravitational instabilities.

Conversion of Gas to Stars:

• In spiral galaxies with lower stability, gravitational instabilities efficiently convert a significant amount of gas into stars.
• This process led to the depletion of gas reservoirs in these galaxies.

Star Formation Mechanism:

• The galaxies with marginal stability levels undergo intense star formation activity for a short time scale, depleting gas reserves.
• In contrast, highly stable galaxies exhibit slower and gradual star formation processes over longer time scales, converting available gas into stars.

Future & Significance:

• There is a need for future investigations into the impact of gravitational instabilities on the morphological evolution of galaxies across different redshifts.
• These insights are crucial for understanding fundamental processes in galaxy formation and evolution.

Elephant Corridors

Context: Recently, the Indian government identified 62 new elephant corridors, marking a significant milestone in the nation's commitment to wildlife conservation. This brings the total number of such corridors to 150, a remarkable increase from the 88 registered in 2010.

What are the Key Highlights About Elephant Corridors?

About:

• Elephant corridors can be described as a strip of land that enables elephant movement between two or more friendly habitats.
• The corridors were reported by respective state governments and ground validation methods were used to verify them.
• State Wise Distribution:
• According to the report, West Bengal leads with 26 corridors, constituting 17% of the total.
• East central India contributes 35% (52 corridors), while the North East region has 32% (48 corridors).
• Southern India has 21% (32 corridors), and northern India has the lowest with 12% (18 corridors).

Status of Corridor Use:

• Elephant corridor report released by the central government showed a 40% increase in elephant corridors across 15 elephant range states in India.
• 19% of corridors (29) show a decrease in use, and 10 require restoration due to impairment.
• Decreased use is attributed to habitat fragmentation and destruction.

Reasons for Increase in Corridors:

• Elephants have expanded their ranges in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and southern Maharashtra bordering Karnataka.
• Elephant corridors have increased in these areas.
• Elephants have also been seen in increased numbers in Madhya Pradesh and northern Andhra Pradesh.