Indian National Movement/GSI
Veer Savarkar

What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister has paid tributes to freedom fighter Veer Savarkar on his Punya tithi.

• Born May 28, 1883, Bhagur, India-died Feb. 26, 1966, Bombay [now Mumbai])
• Hindu and Indian nationalist and leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha ( a Hindu nationalist organization and political party.)
• While a student of law in London (1906-10), Savarkar wrote The Indian War of Independence, 1857 (1909), in which he took the view that the Indian Mutiny of 1857 was the first expression of Indian mass rebellion against British colonial rule.
• In March 1910 Savarkar was arrested on various charges relating to subversion and incitement to war and was sent to India for trial and convicted.
• In a second trial he was convicted of his alleged complicity in the assassination of a British district magistrate in India, and, after sentencing, he was transported to the Andaman Islands for detention "for life."
• He was brought back to India in 1921 and released from detention in 1924.
• While imprisoned he wrote Hinditva: Who Is a Hindu? (1923), coining the term Hindutva ("Hinduness"), which sought to define Indian culture as a manifestation of Hindu values
• This concept grew to become a major tenet of Hindu nationalist ideology.
• Savarkar resided in Ratnagiri until 1937, when he joined the Hindu Mahasabha
• He served as president of the Mahasabha for seven years.
• In 1943 he retired to Bombay.

What's the NEWS

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister has approved the national roll-out of Central Sector Scheme, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, with a budget of Rs.1,600 crore for five years.
• The National Health Authority (NHA) will be the implementing agency of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).

• Digital health solutions across healthcare ecosystem have proven to be of immense benefit over the years, with CoWIN, Arogya Setu and eSanjeevani further demonstrating the role technology can play in enabling access to healthcare.
• There is a need to integrate such solutions for continuum of care, and effective utilization of resources.
• Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is creating a seamless online platform through the provision of a wide-range of data, information and infrastructure services, duly leveraging open, interoperable, standards-based digital systems while ensuring the security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information.
• Under the ABDM, citizens will be able to create their ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) numbers, to which their digital health records can be linked.
• This will enable creation of longitudinal health records for individuals across various healthcare providers, and improve clinical decision making by healthcare providers.
• The mission will improve equitable access to quality healthcare by encouraging use of technologies such as telemedicine and enabling national portability of health services.
• The pilot of ABDM was completed in the six Union Territories with successful demonstration of technology platform developed by the NHA.
• During the pilot, digital sandbox was created in which more than 774 partner solutions are undergoing integration.

NDHM Sandbox

• It is a framework that will allow technologies or products to be tested in the contained environment in compliance with NDHM standards and judge the consumer and market reactions to the same.
• This will help organizations intending to be a part of the National Digital Health Ecosystem to become a Health Information Provider or Health Information User or efficiently link with building blocks of NDHM.
• The sandbox access is open to all upon request. If your request is approved, you will get an access to the sandbox to build or/and expand your products in the healthcare / health tech industry.
• The National Digital Health Mission is creating the core building blocks of healthcare.

1. Health ID - a health identifier to every individual
2. DigiDoctor - a unique identifier to every doctor of every stream of medicine in the country and have his/her qualification/ occupation/ certification updated
3. Health Facility Registry - enabling all health facilities like hospitals, clinics, labs, pharmacies to have a unique identifier and have standardized single point of updated information PHR system - that gives a choice to every individual to have their personal health records under their control.

• Thus, NDHM is creating building blocks enabling a highly efficient and effective healthcare experience and promoting inclusivity - taking healthcare to every corner of the country.
• The Sandbox allows you to utilize the services and build products that shall contribute to the betterment of healthcare in the country.
• It paves the way for an institution/system to become a Health Information Provider or a Health Information User utilizing the NDHM technologies.

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has conceived the idea of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM).
• This visionary initiative of the Government of India, stemming from the National Health Policy, 2017 intends to digitize healthcare in India.
• This would be done by creating digital health records and creating and maintaining registries for healthcare professionals and health facilities, to ensure a smooth, interoperable framework for the multiple stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem in India.
• The National Digital Health Blueprint, 2019 recommends that a federated architecture be adopted, instead of a centralized architecture for the management of health data to ensure interoperability, technological flexibility, and independence across the National Digital Health Ecosystem (NDHE).
• The data collected across NDHE will be stored at three levels, i.e. at a Central level, at a State or Union Territory level and lastly, at the health facility level, adopting the principle of minimality at each level.
• The federated structure necessitates the development of a framework that can be utilized throughout the NDHE by public as well as private players to safeguard the privacy of individuals and confidentiality of health data that has been collected from individuals in India.
• This would be essential to build a trust quotient across the NDHE as well as to ensure that the personal and health data of all individuals in India is adequately protected, across the set of applications, platforms and systems that are a part of the ecosystem.

What's the NEWS

• Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare launched the National Polio Immunization Drive for 2022 by administering polio drops to children below five years of age

• Universal Immunization Programme is focusing to protect children from more diseases than ever before and has introduced several new vaccines like Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), Rotavirus vaccine, and Measles-Rubella vaccine (MR) in the recent past.
• Further, to provide additional protection to our children, the Government of India has also introduced the injectable Inactivated Polio Vaccine into its routine immunization program.
• The objective of Mission Indradhanush or Polio Vaccination Drive is to protect our children against such deadly diseases.

• The Polio National Immunization Day 2022 (NID) will be organized across the country on Sunday, 27th February 2022.
• India conducts one nationwide NID and two Sub-National Immunization Day (SNIDs) for polio every year to maintain population immunity against wild poliovirus and to sustain its polio free status.
• During the Polio NID, Over 15 crore children will be covered across all 36 States and UTs in 735 districts.
• During the drive, polio drops will be provided to children through 7 lakh booths across the country.
• India has been free of polio for more than a decade, with the last case of wild poliovirus reported on 13th January 2011.
• However, India continues to remain vigilant to prevent re-entry of the poliovirus into the country from neighboring countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where wild poliovirus continues to cause the disease.

• The U.S., European allies and Canada agreed to remove key Russian banks from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT, an extraordinary step that will sever the country from much of the global financial system.
• This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally
• Moscow's exclusion from SWIFT, which stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, means Russian banks won't be able to communicate securely with banks beyond its borders.
• Iran was removed from SWIFT in 2014 following developments to Tehran's nuclear program.

• SWIFT is an independent enterprise based in Belgium that serves as an internal messaging system between more than 11,000 banks and financial institutions in over 200 countries and territories.
• The SWIFT system stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication and is a secure platform for financial institutions to exchange information about global monetary transactions such as money transfers.
• While SWIFT does not actually move money, it operates as a middleman to verify information of transactions by providing secure financial messaging services to more than 11,000 banks in over 200 countries.
• Based in Belgium, it is overseen by the central banks from eleven industrial countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, besides Belgium.
• Excluding Russian banks from the SWIFT platform is expected to hit the country's economy hard.
• Russia, has worked on alternatives, including the SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) - an equivalent of the SWIFT financial transfer system developed by the Central Bank of Russia.

Environment/GSIII
Cheetah Reintroduction Action Plan

What's the NEWS

• An expert team of wildlife officials from Madhya Pradesh, the Indian Forest Department and the Wildlife Institute of India that visited Namibia for a site visit last week is reportedly "satisfied", but a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the transfer is yet to be signed.

• Union Environment Minister launched an "action plan" at the 19th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on January 7
• The cheetah that became extinct in independent India, is all set to return.
• India is going to be home once again to the majestic presence of cheetah, the world's fastest land animal
• The Government of India has decided to reintroduce cheetahs, under the 'Action Plan for Introduction of Cheetah in India.
• Project Cheetah aims to bring back independent India's only extinct large mammal - the cheetah.
• As part of the project, 50 cheetahs will be introduced in various National Parks over five years.
• Cheetah happens to be the only large carnivore that got completely wiped out from India, mainly due to over-hunting and habitat loss.
• Conservation of Cheetahs has a very special significance for the national conservation ethic and ethos.
• The very name 'Cheetah' (Acinonyx Jubatus Venaticus) originates from Sanskrit and means 'the spotted one'.
• Amongst the 10 surveyed sites of the central Indian states, Kuno Palpur National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh has been rated the highest.
• This is because of its suitable habitat and adequate prey base.
• KNP is 748 sq. km. in area, devoid of human settlements, forms part of Sheopur-Shivpuri deciduous open forest landscape and is estimated to have a capacity to sustain 21 cheetahs.
• Kuno is probably the only wildlife site in the country where there has been a complete relocation of villages from inside the park.
• Kuno also offers the prospect of housing four big cats of India - tiger, lion, leopard and cheetah - and allowing them to coexist as in the past.

1. Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary (1,197 sq. km, habitat 5,500 sq.km), Madhya Pradesh
2. Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary - Bhainsrorgarh Wildlife Sanctuary complex (~2500 sq.km), Madhya Pradesh
3. Shahgarh bulge in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan (4,220 sq.km)
4. Mukundara Tiger Reserve as fenced enclosure (~80 sq.km), Rajasthan

• The locally extinct cheetah-subspecies of India is found in Iran and is categorized as critically endangered.
• It is not possible to source the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah from Iran without affecting this sub-species
• India will source cheetahs from Southern Africa or Namibia, which can provide India with substantial numbers of suitable cheetah for several years.
• Cheetahs from Southern Africa/ Namibia, have the maximum observed genetic diversity among extant cheetah lineages, an important attribute for a founding population stock.
• Moreover, the Southern African/ Namibia, cheetahs are found to be ancestral to all the other cheetah lineages including those found in Iran.

• Cheetah was declared extinct in India in 1952. It is the only large mammal to have been declared extinct in our country in recorded history.
• It is the fastest land animal and can reach speeds of 30 m/s.
• Cheetah lives in Dryland Ecosystem i.e. Grasslands, Scrublands and Open Forests.

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