Diabetes in India (Prelims & Mains- Science & Technology)

Why in news?

Globally, the number of people living with diabetes rose from 200 million in 1990 to 830 million in 2022. Prevalence has been rising more rapidly in low- and middle-income countries than in high-income countries. India has the highest number of people with diabetes. 

About Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood glucose. Hyperglycaemia, also called raised blood glucose or raised blood sugar, is a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes and over time leads to serious damage to many of the body’s systems, especially the nerves and blood vessels.

Over time, diabetes can damage blood vessels in the heart, eyes, kidneys and nerves.

People with diabetes have a higher risk of health problems including heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.

Diabetes can cause permanent vision loss by damaging blood vessels in the eyes.

Many people with diabetes develop problems with their feet from nerve damage and poor blood flow. This can cause foot ulcers and may lead to amputation.

Types of diabetes

The most common types of diabetes are type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes

In type 1 diabetes, our body makes little or no insulin. The immune system attacks and destroys the cells in the pancreas that make insulin. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, although it can appear at any age. People with type 1 diabetes need to take insulin every day to stay alive.

Type 2 diabetes

In type 2 diabetes, the cells in our body don’t use insulin properly. The pancreas may be making insulin but is not making enough insulin to keep our blood glucose level in the normal range. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes. 

Gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that develops during pregnancy. Most of the time, this type of diabetes goes away after the baby is born. However, if one has gestational diabetes, one has a higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Sometimes diabetes diagnosed during pregnancy is type 2 diabetes.

Prediabetes

People with prediabetes have blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. With prediabetes, one has a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future. 

Symptoms

Symptoms of diabetes may occur suddenly. In type 2 diabetes, the symptoms can be mild and may take many years to be noticed.

Symptoms of diabetes include-feeling very thirsty, needing to urinate more often than usual, blurred vision, feeling tired and losing weight unintentionally.

Diagnosis and treatment

Early diagnosis can be accomplished through testing of blood glucose. People with type 1 diabetes need insulin injections for survival.

Some people with type 2 diabetes will need to take medicines to help manage their blood sugar levels. These can include insulin injections or other medicines. Some examples include: metformin, sulfonylurea, sodium-glucose co-transporters type 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors.

Along with medicines to lower blood sugar, people with diabetes often need medications to lower their blood pressure and statins to reduce the risk of complications.

Additional medical care may be needed to treat the effects of diabetes: foot care to treat ulcers, screening and treatment for kidney disease, eye exams to screen for retinopathy (which causes blindness).

Government of India’s Diabetes Prevention Initiatives

The Government of India has launched several proactive measures to tackle diabetes as part of the broader National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NP-NCD) under the National Health Mission (NHM).

• The Government of India, under the NP-NCD, provides technical and financial assistance to states and UTs through the National Health Mission (NHM).
• Support is allocated based on state and UT proposals with a focus on prevention and management of diabetes and other non-communicable diseases.
• Implemented a population-based initiative that offers screening and control for Healthy lifestyle promotion includes guidance from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on nutrition.
• The Fit India Movement, led by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and yoga programs from the Ministry of AYUSH encourage active and healthy lifestyles.
• Under NP-NCD, states receive financial support for diabetes awareness programs as per their Program Implementation Plans.

• In addition to preventive measures, the NP-NCD also offers financial assistance for purchasing glucometers and diabetes medications, as requested by states and UTs. The NHM’s Free Drugs Service Initiative provides free essential medicines, including insulin, to economically vulnerable groups.
• Through the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), quality generic medications, including insulin, are made available at affordable prices with state collaboration to ensure wider accessibility.

With 133 million people remaining undiagnosed, India has to rapidly scale up diagnosis to meet the 2030 WHO target for diabetes- 80% of people with diabetes are diagnosed and 80% of people with diagnosed diabetes have good control of glycameia.

Climate Change: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (Prelims & Mains- Environment)

Why in news?

India’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from burning fossil fuels are expected to increase by 4.6% in 2024, the highest among major economies, according to a new report by Global Carbon Project, an organisation that quantifies the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

What are greenhouse gases?

GHGs are those gases in the Earth’s atmosphere that trap heat. The Sun emits shortwave radiation or sunlight that passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by the planet’s surface to warm it. However, some of this sunlight is reflected back by the surface as infrared radiation (heat), which has a longer wavelength.

GHGs such as CO2 and methane (CH4), which cannot absorb shortwave radiation, trap infrared radiation. That is because, unlike oxygen or nitrogen molecules, CO2 and methane are made up of three or more atoms, which gives them a larger variety of ways to stretch, bend and twist. This means that they can absorb a wider range of wavelengths, including infrared radiation.

GHGs act like a blanket that envelopes Earth and insulates it from the cold of space. This process of maintaining a warmer temperature is called the greenhouse effect. GHGs like CO2, CH4, and water vapour occur naturally and are a boon for the planet as in their absence there would not be the greenhouse effect without which there would not be liquid water and any form of life.

The issue is the concentration levels of GHGs, meaning their amount in the atmosphere. For about a thousand years before the Industrial Revolution, the GHG concentration remained relatively constant. Since then, there has been a constant rise in the amount of some of the GHGs, especially CO2, due to human activities like burning fossil fuels. As a result, more heat is getting trapped in the atmosphere, leading to a rise in global temperatures.

Why has CO2 caused most of the global warming

CO2 has contributed more than any driver to climate change. CO2 is responsible for about 70% of global warming, according to an analysis by Facts on Climate Change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body that advances scientific knowledge about climate change — compared the “radiative forcing” (RF) or heating effect of three different climate drivers: GHGs, aerosols, and land use change.

There are two reasons:

•  CO2 is much more abundant in the atmosphere compared to CH4 and HFCs. Human activities have raised atmospheric CO2 by 50%, which means the amount of CO2 is now 150% of its value in 1750.
• CO2 remains in the atmosphere longer than the other major GHGs emitted due to human activities. It takes about a decade for CH4 emissions to leave the atmosphere (it converts into CO2) and about a century for nitrous oxide (N2O).

After a pulse of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere, 40% will remain in the atmosphere for 100 years, and 20% will reside for 1000 years, while the final 10% will take 10,000 years to turn over.

AFSPA in Imphal Valley (Mains- Internal Security)

Why in news?

The Centre has reimposed the Act giving sweeping powers to the armed forces in parts of the Manipur Valley, as it struggles to control the ongoing unrest.

What is AFSPA?

Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance was promulgated by the President on 22nd May of 1958. In which some special powers have been given to the members of the armed forces in disturbed areas in the State of Assam and Union Territory of Manipur. Later the Ordinance was replaced by the armed Forces Special Powers Bill.

Section 3 of the Ordinance powers the Governor of Assam and the Chief Commissioner of Manipur to declare the whole or any part of Assam or the Union territory of Manipur. On such a declaration being made in the Official Gazette.

Enacted by Parliament in Ninth Year of the republic of India as follows:- 1.Short title and extent –

 (1) This act may be called [The armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958].

 (2) It extends to the whole of the State of  [Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura].  

Definitions:

 In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-

(a) “armed forces” means the military forces and the air forces operating as land forces, and includes other armed forces of the Union so operating;

(b) “disturbed area” means an area which is for the time being declared by notification under section 3 to be a disturbed area’; 

(c) all other words and expressions used herein, but not defined and defined in the Air Force Act, 1950 , or the army Act, 1950 shall have the meanings respectively to them in those Acts. 

Powers to declare areas to be disturbed areas – 

If, in relation to any State or Union territory to which this Act extends, the Governor of that State or the Administrator of that Union territory or the Central Government, in either case, is of the opinion that the whole or any part of such State or Union territory, as the case may be, is in such a disturbed or dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary, the Governor of that State or the Administrator of that Union territory or the Central Government, as the case may be, may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare the whole or such part of such State or Union territory to be a disturbed area.

Special Powers:

Section 4 of The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) of 1958 grants the military and Central Armed Police Forces a number of special powers, including:

Arrest

The military can arrest people without a warrant if they have reasonable suspicion that a person has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offense. 

Search

The military can search premises without a warrant to arrest people, recover property, or seize arms, ammunition, or explosives. 

Shoot to kill

The military can shoot to kill if they deem it necessary to maintain public order. 

Destroy property

The military can destroy property, such as arms dumps, fortified positions, or shelters used by armed groups. 

Legal immunity

The military is shielded from legal action unless the central government grants sanction. 

Hand over to police

The military must hand over arrested people and seized property to the police as soon as possible. 

What is AFSPA’s history in Manipur?

AFSPA came to the Northeast in the 1950s in the wake of the Naga movement, and the creation of the Naga National Council (NNC).

In Manipur, it was imposed in 1958 in the three Naga-dominated districts of Senapati, Tamenglong, and Ukhrul, where the secessionist NNC was active. It was imposed in the 1960s in the Kuki-Zomi dominated district of Churachandpur, which was under the sway of the Mizo insurgent movement, and extended to the rest of the state in 1979, when groups in the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley began an armed insurgency.

The statute has been controversial, with numerous allegations of excesses by the armed forces. The Malom massacre in 2000, and the killing and alleged rape of Thangjam Manorama led to its subsequent removal from the Imphal municipal area.

 In 2012, the Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association of Manipur filed a case in the Supreme Court, alleging the security forces carried out 1,528 fake encounters between 1979 and 2012. The CBI is probing 94 such killings.

Why has AFSPA been reimposed?

The reimposition of AFSPA in six police stations in the Valley by the Centre is informed by a pattern of violence from Meitei and Kuki armed groups in these areas, and a push by the Army for statutory protection in order to effectively control the unrest.

Barring Jiribam, all the police station areas where AFSPA has been reimposed — Sekmai, Lamsang, Lamlai, Leimakhong, and Moirang — lie on the outer fringes of the Valley, next to the hills.the subsequent withdrawal of Kukis to the hills and Meiteis to the Valley, most of the violence has occurred in these areas on the fringes.

Despite the deployment of central armed police forces (CAPF) personnel and Indian Army soldiers in these so-called “buffer” zones, the Manipur administration has been unable to stem the violence.

What Impact will AFSPA have?

While the AFSPA will indeed grant greater freedom to the Army to use force, much will depend on the political will of the government to act — and to deal with the fallouts of strong action. 

Unlike in most conflict areas, the armed forces in Manipur are currently not only fighting militant groups but also a civil society that is armed to the teeth, thanks in no small measure to weapons looted from police armouries.

The government will be wary of the history of AFSPA in the Northeast, where alleged excesses by the armed forces (like in the early years of the Naga insurgency) only ended up strengthening insurgent movements.