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SOCIAL ISSUESNATIONAL NUTRITION SURVEYContext

• The first-ever comprehensive National Nutrition Survey has been conducted by the Government of India.

• The survey has been conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the United Na-tions Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to measure mal-nutrition.

Survey

• The survey recorded not only micronutrient de-ficiencies but also details of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, choles-terol and kidney function in children and adoles-cents.

• The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India.

Details:

• The National Nutrition Survey is different from the NFHS as it collects data to measure the prev-

alence of stunting, wasting and underweight and household dietary intake to measure deficiencies.

• Moreover, the survey collects data only for the age groups of 1-5 years and adults and not for school going children between the ages of 5 and 19 years.

• The survey has found that nearly 10% of children in the age group of 5-9 years and adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years are pre-diabetic.

• Further, 5% of the children and adolescents in the same group are overweight and another 5% suffer from blood pressure.

• The survey has also found the prevalence of in-dicators of non communicable diseases along-side indicators of undernutrition in the same age group.

• Stunting- low height for age, Wasting- low weight compared to height, Underweight- low weight for age.

• Malnutrition includes both under and over nutri-tion.

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UNICEF

• UNICEF stands for United Nations Children’s Fund.

• It was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1946.

• It is headquartered in New York, USA.

• It is a special program of the United Nations (UN) devoted to aiding national efforts to im-prove the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children.

World Population ProjectionsContext

• World Population Prospects 2019 was re-leased few weeks back by the Population Divi-sion of the UN Department of Economic and So-cial Affairs.

• While the report projects the world population to some 9.7 billion by 2050, it says the overall growth rate will continue to fall.

Background

• The next 30 years will see the population add 2 billion people to today’s 7.7 billion, and reach 11 billion by the end of the century.

• The countries expected to show the biggest in-crease are India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

• However, fertility rates are falling worldwide.

• The average number of births per woman glob-ally, from 3.2 in 1990, fell to 2.5 by 2019, and is projected to fall further to 2.2 births by 2050.

• To avoid decline in a national population, a fertil-ity level of 2.1 births per woman is necessary (in the absence of immigration).

In brief:

• The populations of 55 countries are projected to decrease by 1% or more between 2019 and 2050 because of sustained low levels of fertility, and, in some places, high rates of emigration.

• The largest relative reductions in population size over that period, with losses of around 20% or more, are expected in Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and the Wallis and Futuna Islands.

• Migration flows have become a major reason for population change in certain regions, the report said.

• Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines are seeing the largest migratory outflows resulting from the demand for migrant workers.

• Myanmar, Syria and Venezuela are the countries

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where the largest numbers are leaving because of insecurity or conflict.

Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Katyakram (RBSK)Context:

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a scheme for universal screening of children below 18 years for leprosy and tubercu-losis (TB).

• It is a part of the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK).

RBSK

It was launched in 2013 under the National Health Mission.

It is implemented by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Aim: Early identification and early interven-tion for children from birth to 18 years to cover 4 ‘D’s viz. Defects at birth, Deficiencies, Diseases, Development delays including disability.

Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Ser-vices under RBSK covers 30 selected health con-ditions for screening, early detection and free management. Tuberculosis and Leprosy were pre-viously not a part of it.

Details:

• Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease is a chronic neuro-muscular disorder.

• It is caused by several strains of Mycobacterium leprae.

• It can be cured with Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT).

• In 2005, India achieved the goal of elimination of leprosy as a public health problem, defined by WHO as less than 1 case per 10,000 population.

• All states except Chhattisgarh and the Union Ter-ritory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli have eliminated leprosy.

• However, 1.15 lakh to 1.2 lakh new leprosy cases are still detected annually.

• National Leprosy Eradication Programme was launched in 1983 with an objective to arrest the disease activity in all the known cases of leprosy and eventually eliminate leprosy.

Amid acute poverty, Saharia chil-dren battle malnutritionContext:

Acute malnutrition among Saharia tribes is continu-ing to take away lives.

Saharia Tribes:

• Saharias are a particularly vulnerable tribal group.

• The Saharia are an ethnic group in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.

• They are also found in Baran district of Rajas-than.

• The tribe members believe in Folk Hinduism’s gods and goddess that they worship.

• The Sahariya tribe health is very poor. There is a prevalence of malnutrition and pulmonary tuberculosis.

Details:

• Acute malnutrition among Saharia tribes is con-tinuing to take away lives, due to crushing pov-erty, delayed breastfeeding, premature pregnan-cies and seasonal migrations.

• India, in the 2018 Global Hunger Index, ranked an abysmal 103 out of 119 countries, consistently showing a downward trend on wasting and un-dernourishment parameters.

• There is prevalence of superstitious beliefs among the tribe, such as a newborn has to be fed jaggery syrup or honey, as the first milk is impure because it is extracted from breasts after nine long months.

• According to the National Family Health Survey 2014-2015, just 43.2% of children under three were breastfed within the first hour of their birth in rural parts of Sheopur district.

• Seasonal migration also affects children, especial-

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ly girls, as parents mostly take them along with them to fields where they are neglected, wander under the sun, don’t get food, and contract dis-eases easily during the monsoon.

• An Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study revealed that, among Saharias, TB preva-lence is an alarming 1,995 per 1,00,000 persons.

• RNTCP-DOTS programme is working effectively to change this condition.

• It is opined that higher incidence of tuberculosis among Saharias is linked to the high malnutrition level among them and vice versa.

Manufacturers told to rush rabies vaccines to areas facing shortageContext:

• National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has ordered the manufacturers to supply the an-ti-rabies vaccines where there is a shortage of these medicines.

• Rabies is caused by Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) virus that is present in the saliva of a rabid animal.

• It is transmitted following a bite of a rabid animal that leads to deposition of the saliva and the vi-rus in the wound.

Background

The death invariably occurs in four days to two weeks due to cardio-respiratory failure.

However, the time interval between the bite and oc-currence of symptoms varies from four days to two years or rarely even more.

Thus, it is important to remove the virus from the wound as early as possible by immediately washing the wound with water and soap followed by appli-cation of antiseptics that reduce chances of nerve infection.

Details:

• According to the Health Ministry’s data, India is a hotbed of human rabies.

• India accounts for more than one-third of the world’s rabies deaths.

• India has a population of 30 million stray dogs

which cause 96% of rabies in humans.

• Each year, as many as 20,000 people die due to the vaccine-preventable fatality.

• NPPA is an independent body set up in 1997 un-der Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

The functions of NPPA are:

(a)To implement and enforce the provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order

(b)Deal with all legal matters arising out of the de-cisions of the Authority

(c) To monitor the availability of drugs, identify shortages and

(d) To collect/ maintain data on production, ex-ports and imports, profitability of companies for bulk drugs and formulation.

Tamil Nadu ranks lowest in cover-age of iodised saltContext:

According to a first-of-its-kind national survey to measure the coverage of iodised salt, Tamil Nadu has the lowest consumption of iodised salt despite being the third biggest producer of salt in the country.

Details:

• The study also examined the urinary iodine con-centration in samples from pregnant, lactating and non-pregnant, non-lactating women of re-productive age (15-49 years) to estimate the io-dine status among them.

• The survey was conducted by Nutrition Interna-tional in collaboration with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Indian Coalition for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IC-CIDD).

• The survey tested the iodine content in samples of cooking salt from households to estimate the coverage of iodised salt.

• The study shows that 76.3% of Indian households consumed adequately iodised salt, which is salt with at least 15 parts per million of iodine.

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• The five worst performers were Tamil Nadu (61.9%), Andhra Pradesh (63.9%), Rajasthan (65.5%), Odisha (65.8%) and Jharkhand (68.8%).

• Rajasthan, which is the second-largest producer of salt, also figured among the five worst covered States. Gujarat produces 71% of salt in the coun-try, followed by Rajasthan at 17% and Tamil Nadu at 11%.

• The rest of the country accounts for a mere 1% of salt produced.

• The survey also revealed that 13 out of 36 States have already achieved Universal Salt Iodisation or have 90% of households with access to ade-quately iodised salt.

• Fortification of Salt:

• India made fortification of salt with iodine man-datory for direct human consumption in 1992.

• This was relaxed in 2000 and then reimposed in 2005.

• In 2011, the Supreme Court, too, mandated uni-versal iodisation for the control of iodine defi-ciencies.

Iodine:

• Iodine is a vital micro-nutrient for optimal men-tal and physical development of human beings.

• Deficiency of iodine can result in a range of dis-abilities and disorders such as goitre, hypothy-roidism, cretinism, abortion, still births, mental retardation and psychomotor defects.

• Children born in iodine deficient areas may have up to 13.5 IQ points less than those born in iodine sufficient areas.

Way forward:

• The key recommendation of the study is to sus-tain the momentum so that iodine coverage does not fall below current levels.

• It also recommends that the States and the Cen-tre work together to address the current gaps and look into issues that vary from one State to another, leading to adequately iodised salt not being produced.

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World University RankingsContext

• The Times Higher Education has ranked 1,300 universities from 92 countries.

• Times Higher Education has released the World University Rankings 2020.

• Details:

• The University of Oxford retained the top posi-tion for the consecutive fourth year.

• Times has also included 56 Indian institutions into the table this year, making India the fifth most-represented country in the list and the third in Asia (behind Japan and China).

• The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore topped the Indian universities on the list.

• However, its ranking fell from the 251-300 group in 2019 to the 301-350 bracket in 2020.

• Further, this is for the first time since 2012 that an Indian university has not featured in the top 300 of the ranking.

• According to THE, the best Indian institutions are generally characterized by relatively strong scores for teaching environment and industry in-come, but when it comes to an international out-look they perform poorly.

TIMES

• Times Higher Education World University Rank-ings is an annual publication of university rank-ings by the Times Higher Education (THE) mag-azine.

• The world university rankings are based on marks allotted under areas such as teaching, research, citations, industry income and inter-national outlook with a maximum of 100 marks in each category and for overall performance.

NCST recommends ‘tribal area’ status for LadakhContext:

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has written to Home Minister Amit Shah and Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda, recommending that Ladakh be declared a tribal area under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

Details:

• The Home Ministry is the central authority for de-claring an area as a “tribal area”.

• The NCST’s recommendation comes against the backdrop of growing demand from a predomi-nantly tribal population and political leaders of Ladakh for according “tribal area” status to the region.

• Though Ladakhis have welcomed the Centre’s de-cision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and make Ladakh a Union territory, they fear an influx of outsiders would lead to a change in the region’s demography, jeopardising their culture and identity.

• It is estimated that more than 90 percent of Lada-kh’s population is tribal.

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The NCST opines that, including Ladakh under Sched-ule 6 will help in:

• Democratic devolution of powers.

• Preserving and promoting distinct culture of the region.

• Protection of agrarian rights including rights on land and.

• Enhancing transfer of funds for speedy develop-ment of the region.

Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution:

• The Sixth Schedule is related to the administra-tion of the North Eastern states of of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

• The Sixth Schedule gives tribal communities considerable autonomy.

• The role of the Governor and the State are sub-ject to significant limitations, with greater pow-ers devolved locally.

• 6th schedule provides for District Councils and Regional Councils with certain legislative and judicial powers.

• The District Council and the Regional Council under the Sixth Schedule have real power to make laws, possibility on the various legisla-tive subjects, receiving grants-in-aids from the Consolidated Fund of India to meet the costs of schemes for development, health care, ed-ucation, roads and regulatory powers to state control.

• The mandate towards Devolution, deconcen-tration and divestment determines the protec-tion of their customs, better economic devel-opment and most importantly ethnic security.

• 6th schedule provides for District Councils and Regional Councils with certain legislative and judicial powers.

National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST):

• National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) is a constitutional body.

• It was established through Constitution (89th Amendment) Act, 2003

• On the 89th Amendment of the Constitution coming into force in 2004, the National Com-mission for Scheduled Tribes was set up under Article 338A on bifurcation of erstwhile Na-tional Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to oversee the implementa-tion of various safeguards provided to Sched-uled Tribes under the Constitution.

With the amendment, the erstwhile National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Sched-uled Tribes was replaced by two separate Com-missions:

(i) National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC)

(ii) National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST)

Accessible India CampaignContext

The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has developed a Management Information System (MIS) for stakeholders of Acces-sible India Campaign (AIC).

The portal will bring all the nodal ministries, and States/UTs on a single platform for monitoring the progress being made against each target of AIC. Fur-ther, it will be useful in maintaining all the function on digital platform and capture data on a real-time basis.

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Accessible India Campaign

“Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan)”is a nation-wide flagship campaign for achieving universal accessibility that will en-able persons with disabilities to gain access for equal opportunity and live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life in an inclu-sive society.

The campaign was launched to fulfill the gov-ernment’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Dis-abilities (UNCRPD) which mandates the signa-tories to take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and commu-nications, including information and communi-cations technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas

Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) has the following three important components

1. Built Environment Accessibility

2. Transportation System Accessibility

3. Information and Communication Eco-System Accessibility

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana YojanaContext:

• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PM-MVY), a flagship scheme of the Government for pregnant women and lactating mothers has achieved a significant milestone by crossing one crore beneficiaries.

• The total amount disbursed to the beneficiaries under the scheme has crossed Rs. 4,000 crores.

Objectives

• Providing partial compensation for the wage loss in terms of cash incentives so that the woman can take adequate rest before and after delivery of the first living child.

• The cash incentive provided would lead to im-proved health seeking behaviour amongst Preg-nant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW&LM).

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana

• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana – PM-MVY is a maternity benefit programme offered by the government of India under which a cash incentive of Rs. 5,000 is provided to pregnant women and lactating mothers.

• The incentive is provided for the first living child of the family for fulfilling the specific ma-ternal and child health conditions viz. early reg-istration of pregnancy, ante-natal check-up and registration of the birth of the child and com-pletion of first cycle of vaccination for the first living child of the family.

• The eligible beneficiaries would receive the in-centive given under the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) for Institutional delivery and the incentive received under JSY would be accounted to-wards maternity benefits so that on an average a woman gets Rs 6000.

• The amount is transferred in three installments via DBT directly in the bank Account.

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Gooseberry candy rescues Assam nutrition driveContext:

A drive for good nutrition among pregnant women and children in a southern Assam district has been given a gooseberry candy twist. This follows a report that the targeted groups find the prescribed iron-fo-lic acid tablets repulsive.

Background:

• According to the 2015 National Family Health Survey, 47.2% of the women of reproductive age in Hailakandi were anaemic.

• The district, thus, has the most anaemic children below 5 years, adolescents and women of repro-ductive age in Assam.

Concerns:

• Data reveals that the mothers, pregnant women and children in the district, consume only 24.3% of the total iron-folic acid tablets that the district receives and distributes.

• The tablets given to these groups are often not consumed as they feel nauseated or have consti-pation issues.

• There are also myths that these tablets will kill them or make them incapable of conceiving.

• About 32.5% of the children aged below five in Hailakandi are underweight. The average figure for Assam is 30%.

Details:

• To get around the problem while launching Posh-an Maah, or nutrition month, a few days ago, the district administration decided to produce round-ish amla-gur candies with a dose of salt.

• Nutritionists involved in the campaign said amla, or gooseberry, is rich in Vitamin C and antioxi-dants, while jaggery, is rich in iron, vital vitamins and minerals that boost the immune system.

• The gooseberry candy is provided alongside iron-folic acid tablets as behavioural change in nutritious eating is a slow process.

• If women and children avoid the tablet, they can get the required vitamin and mineral inputs

through the improvised delicacy of which ingre-dients are available locally.

• The candy is cost-effective too.

• Anganwadi workers, supervisors and mothers have been engaged to prepare and distribute the ‘laddoos’ with the ingredients given by the dis-trict authorities.

Conclusion:

This novel initiative could go a long way in checking anaemia that increases the risk during pregnancy and at childbirth, besides resulting in low birth weight and malnourished children.

Poshan Abhiyaan targets are aspi-rational: StudyContext

• India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative has re-leased a report titled Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2017.

• It is a joint initiative of the Indian Council of Med-ical Research (ICMR), Public Health Foundation of India, and Institute for Health Metrics and Evalu-ation in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

• The initiative was launched in 2015.

Details:

• The death rate due to malnutrition in children under five years of age in India has dropped by two-thirds between 1990 and 2017.

• However, it accounts for 68% of deaths in chil-dren of the age group.

• Bihar and Assam have the highest malnutrition levels in the country.

• Among the malnutrition indicators, low birth weight is the biggest contributor to disease bur-den followed by child growth failure which in-cludes stunting, underweight and wasting.

• Disease burden rate, attributable to malnutrition in children, varies seven-fold between the states.

• States like Rajasthan, UP, Bihar and Assam top the list while Kerala and Tamil Nadu have the lowest disease burden.

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• India will miss Poshan Abhiyan target for stunt-ing levels by 9.6%; underweight target by 4.8%; desired low birth level by 8.9%; anaemia lev-el among women by 13.8%; and anaemia level among children by 11.7%.

POSHAN Abhiyan (National Nutrition mission)

• It was launched in 2018 and is implemented by the Ministry of Women and Child develop-ment.

• The mission aims to ensure attainment of mal-nutrition free India by 2022.

• It seeks to ensure holistic development and ad-equate nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children.

• It targets to reduce stunting, under- nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.

• It would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022.

• Stunting- low height for age, Wasting- low weight compared to height, Underweight- low weight for age.

• Malnutrition includes both under and over nu-trition.

‘Heart attack linked to air pollu-tion’Context:

A study reveals that air pollution could be the new equivalent of smoking for heart diseases.

Concerns:

• The study found that approximately 35% of pa-tients with no conventional risk factors suffered from cardiovascular diseases (CAD) due to rea-

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sons linked to air pollution.

• Previously, air pollution was exclusively linked only to respiratory diseases.

• In recent times, multiple clinical studies have proved the role of air pollution in causing cardio-vascular diseases.

• It is found that air pollution kills more people than smoking.

• Out of one lakh Indians, about 200 people are prone to heart diseases due to air pollution.

Details:

• The study was conducted by Sri Jayadeva Insti-tute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, which tied up with institutions such as NIMHANS and St. John’s Research Centre, Bengaluru.

• The study was released a day ahead of World Heart Day observed on September 29th.

• In-depth research conducted on people who did not posses any risk factors, who had heart dis-eases, revealed that their blood contained higher haemoglobin levels. But the kind of carboxy hae-moglobin especially observed in drivers exposed ti air pollution doesn’t account as a healthy fac-tor.

• The study throws light upon the fact that more young Indians are vulnerable to heart diseases and air pollution is an emerging risk factor for heart attack.

• The report pointed out that transport is one of the major sources of emissions in Bengaluru. The PM10 annual average over Bengaluru is still al-most 1.5 times the National Ambient air Quality Standards, which could adversely affect health.

National Ambient Air Quality Standards:

• National Ambient Air Quality Standards are the standards for ambient air quality set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) that is applicable nationwide.

• The CPCB has been conferred this power by the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

• The measurement of air quality is based on eight pollutants, namely, PM5, sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), PM10, lead (Pb), carbon monoxide (CO), Ozone, Ammonia (NH3).

All India Survey on Higher Educa-tion (AISHE)Context

• Union Minister for Human resource and develop-ment (HRD) has released the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2018-19.

• The AISHE Survey was initiated in the year 2011 to prepare a robust database on higher educa-tion.

All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE)

• Under this, the ministry of HRD collects online information on Universities, Colleges and other Higher Educational Institutions.

• The data is collected on several parameters such as teachers, student enrolment, pro-grammes, examination results, education fi-nance and infrastructure.

• Further, the indicators of educational develop-ment such as Institution Density, Gross Enrol-ment Ratio, Pupil-teacher ratio, Gender Parity Index, Per Student Expenditure are also calcu-lated under the survey.

Highlights of the survey

• The top 8 States in terms of highest number of colleges in India are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Gu-jarat and Madhya Pradesh.

• According to the survey, the present Gross Enrol-ment Ratio (GER) in higher education is around 26.3% up from 25.8% in 2017-18.

• The Gender Parity Index (GPI) which measures the the male:female ratio in higher education has increased over the last five years from 0.92 in 2014-15 to 1 in 2018-19.

• The survey has said that the highest share of foreign students comes from the neighbouring countries of which Nepal is first followed by Af-ghanistan, Bangladesh , Sudan, Bhutan and Nige-ria.

• The students enrolment in B.Tech and M.Tech programmes has seen a dramatic fall.

• This has led to an overall dip in enrolment in pro-fessionals courses which has hit a four-year low.

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Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)

• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher educa-tion in India is calculated for 18-23 years of age group.

• The total enrolment in higher education re-gardless of age is expressed as a percentage to the eligible official population (18-23 years) in a given year.

• The GER is widely used to show the general level of participation in and capacity of higher education.

• The data includes details on gender wise gross enrolment ratio in higher education for all cat-egories.

Higher Education Commission of India billContext:

• Government is likely to introduce the Higher Edu-cation Commission of India (HECI) Bill in the win-ter session of Parliament.

• The bill aims to create a Higher Education Com-mission of India (HECI) replacing the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Coun-cil for Technical Education (AICTE).

Features of the bill

The bill proposes to bring almost all areas of higher education including technical, architectural and legal courses except medical education under the ambit of a HECI.

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The HECI will maintain academic standards in higher education by

(a) specifying learning outcomes for courses

(b) specifying eligibility criteria for Vice Chancellors and

(c) ordering closure of higher educational institutions which fail to adhere to minimum standards.

The bill says that person appointed as Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Members shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office or upto 70 years of age.

Further, the bill provides for a new autonomous body which will be created to supervise the doling out of funds to higher education institutions.

UGC

• The University Grants Commission of India (UGC India) is a statutory body set up by the Indian Union government in accordance to the UGC Act, 1956 under Ministry of Human Re-source Development.

• It is charged with coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of higher edu-cation.

• It provides recognition to universities in India and disburses funds to such recognised univer-sities and colleges.

AICTE

• The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is the statutory body and a nation-al-level council for technical education.

• It works under Department of Higher Educa-tion, Ministry of Human Resource Develop-ment.

• It was initially established in 1945 as an advi-sory body and later on in 1987 given statutory status by an Act of Parliament.

• AICTE is responsible for proper planning and coordinated development of the technical ed-ucation and management education system in India.

‘TB HAREGA DESH JEETEGA’ CAM-PAIGNContext:

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare has launched the ‘TB Harega Desh Jeetega Campaign’ along with the National TB Prevalence Survey.

The campaign aims to improve and expand the reach of Tuberculosis care services across the country by 2022.

Details:

The three strong pillars of the campaign include

(a) clinical approach,

(b) public health component and

(c) active community participation.

There are some other supporting aspects of the cam-paign including patient support, private sector en-gagement, political and administrative commitment at all levels.

The government will also ensure that all patients at private or public hospitals receive free-of-cost and high-quality TB care.

Survey

• Union Health Minister has also flagged off a van for the National TB Prevalence Survey.

• In all, 25 such vans will be part of the prevalence survey, which will go to 625 clusters of the coun-try and check for TB.

• This sample survey is to be completed by 2020.

• This shall present national and state level data which will be used as a policy tool for further in-terventions.

TB

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious airborne bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

It most commonly affects the lungs but can also dam-age other parts of the body.

TB kills an estimated 4.8 lakh Indians every year and more than 1,400 every day.

India has the highest TB burden in the world and also

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has more than a million ‘missing’ cases every year that are not notified.

Details:

• The Government of India has partnered with the Global Fund to launch JEET (Joint Effort for Elimination of TB) a private sector engage-ment program operating across the country.

• In 2018, the government had launched the Nikshay Poshan Yojana, a direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme to provide nutritional support to TB patients.

• Under the scheme, TB patients have been receiving Rs. 500 per month for the entire duration of treatment.