GS2: Health; Birth & Death Rates
Malappuram delivers in its fight against home births
Context: Home births rates in Malappuram district of Kerala have come down drastically from 253 in 2023-24 to 191 in 2024-25. Only four cases were reported in June, as remarkable to targeted interventions by the State health authorities.
- Case Study: Death of a 35-year-old woman during home birth at Padapparamba, near Malappuram, in April that prompted a series of interventions from the State health authorities, with the support of the district administration and the police. Religious and socio-cultural leaders were also roped in.
- The practice of home births is not restricted to any religion or community. The trend is largely influenced by certain naturopathy and acupuncture groups and driven by a desire to avoid medical procedures such as epidurals or pain medication; labour induction or delivery assisted with forceps or other instruments.
- Efforts by health officials have led to a substantial decline in home births among the tribespeople in the district’s remote areas of Nilambur, where such cases were once common.
- “Home births have a higher risk of infant or maternal death and other complications than hospital births,”.
GS2: Health; Birth & Death Rates
State’s fertility rate declines further to 1.5, well below replacement level
According to the Sample Registration Survey 2023, released this week, the Crude Birth Rate in Karnataka fell to 15.2 in 2023, down from 15.8 in 2022. However, the sex ratio at birth at 931 stood higher than the national average of 917.
- Karnataka has recorded a steady decline in its birth rate, with the State’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) at 1.5 in 2023, well below the replacement level fertility rate of 2.1. It was 1.6 in 2022.
- Karnataka is in the group of other southern States such as Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, all of which have fertility levels lower than replacement rate.
- Replacement level TFR denotes the average number of children each woman needs to give birth for one generation to replace the other.
- According to the Sample Registration Survey (SRS) 2023, released this week by the Office of the Registrar General of India, the Crude Birth Rate (CBR) in Karnataka fell to 15.2 in 2023, down from 15.8 in 2022.
- At the national level, India’s CBR declined from 19.1 in 2022 to 18.4 in 2023, while the country’s TFR fell for the first time in two years to 1.9. Bihar recorded the highest CBR at 25.8 and the highest TFR at 2.8, while Tamil Nadu reported the lowest CBR at 12 with a TFR of 1.3.
- At 931, Karnataka’s sex ratio at birth (SRB) stood higher than the national average of 917, denoting that 931 girls are born for every 1,000 boys in the population. The sex ratio is higher in rural areas in Karnataka at 936 compared to 922 in urban areas.
- The data showed that Chhattisgarh and Kerala reported the highest SRB at 974 and 971, respectively, while Uttarakhand reported the lowest at 868. Bihar’s SRB remained among the lowest in the country, despite slightly improving to 897 in 2023. Delhi, Maharashtra, and Haryana were among some of the States and UTs reporting SRB below 900 in 2023.
GS2: Health; Birth & Death Rates
State’s infant mortality rate falls by one point
Highlighting improved health indicators in Karnataka, the State’s infant mortality rate (IMR) fell from 15 in 2022 to 14 in 2023, according to the Sample Registration Survey (SRS), 2023, released this week by the office of the Registrar-General of India.
- IMR is defined as infant (less than one year) deaths per thousand live births in a given time period and for a given region.
- Karnataka’s IMR has seen a reduction of 21 points since 2011. From 35 in 2011, the State successfully reduced the IMR to 24 in 2016. Although this vital parameter again went up and touched 25 in 2017, it has fallen by two points every year since then, touching 19 in 2020 and 14 in 2023.
- However, a matter of concern is that rural areas continue to report a higher number of infant deaths compared to urban areas. Also, the death rate is high in female babies. While 16 female infant deaths per thousand live births were reported in rural areas in Karnataka in 2023, the rate is 14 in urban regions.
- Karnataka’s IMR is far better than the national average that dropped to 25 in 2023 from 26 in 2022. In the last 10 years, the national IMR has witnessed a decline of about 37.5% from 40 to 25 in the last decade. The corresponding decline in rural areas is 44 to 28, and for urban areas it is from 27 to 18, thereby exhibiting about 36% and 33% decadal decline, respectively.
- Despite the decline in IMR over the last decades, one in every 40 infants die within the first year of their life at the national level (irrespective of rural-urban), stated the SRS bulletin.
What Interventions helped achieve this feat?
- Substantially improving the community and facility based services.
- Regularly conducting death audits and the causes are addressed.
- Infectious diseases, including pneumonia, diarrhoea, and hypothermia, have come down drastically owing to general hygiene measures, awareness, and education of mothers by ASHAs.
- However, preterm birth complications, birth asphyxia, and low birth weight apart from congenital anomalies are challenges that need to be addressed continuously.
GS2: International Organizations; UNGA
PM to skip key UNGA session later this month
Context: United nations Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not address the General Debate at the annual high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly from September 23 to 29. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will address the session on September 27.
- Modi was scheduled to speak on September 26; Trump will address world leaders on Sept. 23; theme for session is ‘Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development, human rights’
- The 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly will open on September 9. The General Debate will run from September 23-29, with Brazil as the traditional first speaker of the session, followed by the U.S.
- According to a previous list issued in July, Mr. Modi was scheduled to address on September 26. The heads of government of Israel, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh were scheduled to address the UNGA General Debate on the same date.
- Mr. Trump has imposed tariffs totalling 50% on India, including 25% for Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
- The session this year comes amid the continued Israel-Hamas war as well as the Ukraine conflict.
- The theme for the 80th session is ‘Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights’.
- The session will open with a meeting to ‘Commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the United Nations’ on September 22.
GS2: Higher Education; Medical Education;
State introduces 15% NRI quota seats in government medical colleges
In a first, Karnataka is introducing 15% NRI quota seats in government medical colleges.
- The development follows the National Medical Commission (NMC) sanctioning 450 additional medical seats for the State, fulfilling a long-standing demand.
- Of the 450 newly approved seats, 15% had been earmarked for NRI quota, with a fixed fee of ₹25 lakh per seat. “This will help government medical colleges become more financially self-reliant instead of depending heavily on State grants,”.
- These seats will be available from the academic year 2025–26, raising the total seats in the State to 9,663.
- After NMC chairman Abhijit Chandrakant Seth announced the addition of 8,000 seats nationwide, Karnataka had submitted a proposal for additional seats in government medical colleges. “The number of students aspiring for medical education increases every year. Many meritorious students cannot afford the high fees of private colleges.
GS2: Election Commission of India; Special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls;
EC to hold State CEOs’ meet over SIR on Sept. 10
The Election Commission will hold a conference of Chief Electoral Officers (CEO) of all States and Union Territories on September 10 to take stock of preparedness for rolling out a nationwide special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
- This will be the third meeting of CEOs since Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar took over in February.
- A senior EC official said though this was a routine meeting, special focus would be on the preparations under way to roll out the SIR across the country. The controversial exercise is currently on in Bihar.
- All CEOs would be making presentations on the number of voters and details of the last intensive revision, the official said.
- Though the rolls are summarily revised every year and before each election, through the SIR the EC has sought a list of 11 eligibility documents.
- This has been challenged in the Supreme Court, which has asked the commission to consider Aadhaar as an eligibility document in case a voter is unable to furnish any of the 11 indicative documents and is facing deletions from the voter list.
Two new judges appointed to Allahabad High Court
The Union government on Saturday cleared the appointment of two advocates as judges of the Allahabad High Court. Sharing the information, Minister of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal wrote on X, “In exercise of the power conferred by the Constitution of India, the President of India, after consultation with Chief Justice of India, is pleased to appoint Amitabh Kumar Rai and Rajiv Lochan Shukla, advocates, as judges of the Allahabad High Court.” The appointment follows a recommendation made by the Supreme Court Collegium in March. The High Court now has 86 judges against 160 sanctioned.
GI tag push for traditional items reshapes Bodoland poll narrative
The registration of 21 items, including local textiles and traditional alcoholic beverages, has enthused 26 communities of the Bodoland Territorial Region to have their cultural artefacts GI-tagged; a youth- led initiative helped in gaining GI registration.
Assam’s poll-bound Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) has the usual issues. It also has a new topic of discussion — Geographical Indication or GI tags for its traditional products, crafts, and agricultural items.
Elections in the 8,970- sq. km BTR, governed by the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), are scheduled for September 22. The council has 40 constituencies across five districts bordering Bhutan.
A team of Bodo youth undertook an initiative that helped the BTR government get GI registration for 21 items, including local textiles and traditional alcoholic beverages. Awareness about the inherent benefits of such tagging virtually triggered a race among 26 indigenous communities to register their cultural artefacts.
The core members of the team are biotechnologist Ling Narzihary, artist Swapna Muchahary, social worker Kansai Brahma, and entrepreneurs Nachani Brahma, Pulak Basumatary, and Ranjila Mohilary.
“A GI tag fuels economic growth through higher market value and export potential, legal protection against unauthorised use and imitation, cultural preservation, and enhanced consumer trust by assuring quality and authenticity. It also fosters rural development,” Mr. Narzihary said.
The team began collecting data in 2021 and identified more than 50 items that qualified for GI tagging. The registration for 21 of these was secured between November 2023 and May 2024. A few months ago, the BTR government launched a special drive to secure the GI tag for the remaining and more traditional items of all 26 communities living in the BTR. Apart from the dominant Bodos, the communities include Adivasis, Gurkhas, Koch-Rajbongshis, Hajongs, Kurukhs, Madahi Kacharis, Hiras, and Patnis.
Recently, the Delhi-based Gandhi Hindustani Sahitya Sabha was roped in to provide expert guidance through a series of workshops, and help various community scholars and leaders to identify and document their respective cultural items for filing GI tag applications.
The goal is to create “GI villages”, where clusters of artisans and farmers will be supported with training, infrastructure, and direct market linkages.
ABSU resolution
About a decade ago, the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) adopted a resolution to seek GI tags for items unique to the BTR. The union was then headed by Pramod Boro, one of the key architects of the Bodo Peace Accord in January 2020. The push for GI tagging came after Mr. Boro, who left the ABSU to join the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), became the Chief Executive Member of the BTC in December 2020. The UPPL rules the BTR in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the regional Gana Suraksha Party. The UPPL and the BJP are locked in a three-cornered contest along with the Bodoland People’s Front.
One of the priorities of the BTR government, headed by Mr. Boro, was to ensure the recognition and protection of indigenous heritage. The government’s objective was similar to that of the team headed by Mr. Narzihary, leading to their collaboration. Among 21 items that received the GI tag are Aronai, Dokhona, and Zwmgra (motif-rich textiles); Kham, Serza, and Siphung (musical instruments); Maibra Zwu Bidwi and Zwu Gisi (alcoholic beverages); Gwkha Gwkhwi and Napham (cuisine) and Gongar Dundia and Khera Daphini (rare medicinal plants).
‘Declining Central allocation for MGNREGS affects rural women’
There is a direct correlation between declining Central allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and the reduced income of rural women, activists of the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, said at a press conference in Delhi to mark the 20th anniversary of the governing law.
Ram Beti, NREGA Sangharsh Morcha activist from Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh, said that prior to the implementation of the rural employment guarantee scheme, men used to be paid double that of women for agricultural work and blue collar jobs. “With MGNREGS, for the first time, we got the same pay for the same work as men,” she said. While the number of workers have increased, the budget for the programme has remained the same, she said, slowly starving the welfare programme.
“We are back to the pre-2006 situation since the work under the scheme is no longer available due to a fund shortage,” she said.
Women constitute more than 50% of the workforce for MGNREGS projects. This year, out of the total person-days (defined under MGNREGS as the total number of work days by a person registered under the scheme in a financial year), 56% was completed by women.
On the move with green hydrogen
The Indian Railways recently announced that a hydrogen-powered train, developed at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, has successfully completed all tests. This is a welcome sign of progress for the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which aims to produce at least five million metric tonnes of green hydrogen per year by the year 2030, a milestone on the way to achieving nationwide net zero emissions by 2070.
The train will soon be carrying passengers between Jind and Sonipat on an 89-km route in Haryana. This project will rely on hydrogen produced in Jind by a 1-MW polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyser that produces 430 kg of hydrogen every day. The hydrogen will refill fuel tanks on the train, where fuel cells will convert the hydrogen to electricity that runs the train’s electric motors.
The principle is quite simple. An electrolyser splits a water molecule into oxygen, protons, and electrons. In an electrochemical reaction at the negative electrode (called the anode), molecular oxygen is released, and the electrons liberated are conducted to the cathode via an external circuit. The polymer electrolyte membrane between the cathode and the anode is selective and only allows protons to pass through to the cathode, where they unite with the electrons to form hydrogen molecules. These rise as a gas and are collected, compressed, and stored. The membrane, typically a fluoropolymer such as Nafion (related to Teflon) is an excellent insulator, and electrons will not pass. The hydrogen and oxygen formed are clearly separated.
Inthe locomotive, as in a hydrogen-powered automobile, the above reaction is reversed in the hydrogen fuel cell. Hydrogen is brought to the anode, where each molecule is catalytically split into two protons and two electrons. The protons pass through the membrane to the cathode, where they meet oxygen in air and the electrons that are brought through an external circuit from the anode. Water is formed. The electrons flowing through the external circuit constitute the electric current that powers the locomotive.
There is a key difference between the chemical reactions in the fuel cell and in the electrolyser. The chemistry between hydrogen and oxygen is spontaneous, a reaction waiting to happen. Water, however, will not split into the two elements by itself. Electrical current must be supplied to provide the energy for this electrochemical reaction.
To produce green hydrogen, the electricity for the electrolysers has to come from renewable sources, such as solar panels or wind turbines. New sources of renewable energy will be needed to meet the goals of the National Green Hydrogen Mission. Also under way are exciting attempts to produce hydrogen in microbial electrolytic cells, where electrochemically active microbes grow on anodes and oxidize organic matter — agricultural residues, even wastewater — and pass the electrons generated to the anode (Current Science, vol. 128, p. 133, 2025).
The catalysis steps require expensive materials such as platinum, iridium, etc. Ongoing research is aimed at replacing these with inexpensive nickel, cobalt, or even iron. In early work towards cheap hydrogen generation, the group of C.N.R. Rao at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research designed nickel-nickel hydroxide-graphite electrodes with a water-splitting capability comparable to platinum electrodes (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, vol. 114, 2017). Combining such developments with solar and microbe-driven processes can produce a fuel that is both green and inexpensive.
Blood moon
Sky gazers in India and in other parts of the world will be able to witness a blood moon on September 7 during a total lunar eclipse. The moon will take on a dark red-copper hue. This is the result of a physical effect called Rayleigh scattering.
During a total lunar eclipse, the earth comes between the sun and the moon, blocking direct sunlight from striking the lunar surface. However, not all sunlight is blocked. Only the bluer light is filtered out; the redder light is scattered by the earth’s atmosphere, giving the moon its striking colour. This phenomenon is called Rayleigh scattering. When light interacts with particles smaller than its wavelength, the intensity of the scattered light is inversely proportional to its wavelength. This is why earthsky appears blue: it has the shortest wavelength in visible light.
During a blood moon, however, the bluer light is absorbed by the earth’s atmosphere while the redder light is refracted towards the moon. The precise hue depends on dust and smoke levels in the atmosphere.
A flashpoint in the Palk Strait
The Gist
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s recent visit to Katchatheevu, said to be the first by a head of state, drew attention on both sides of the Palk Strait.
Attired in smart casuals — his trademark double-pocket shirt — the 56-year-old leftist leader, elected to office a year ago, is seen on a naval boat, flanked by Fisheries Minister and Jaffna MP Ramalingam Chandrasekar and other officials. He smiles gently before setting foot on the tiny, uninhabited island, 33 nautical miles off the Jaffna peninsula, on September 1. Seated in the shade of palm trees, Mr. Dissanayake listens intently while a Naval officer describes the 1.15 sq. km outcrop, pointing to a map.
Walking around briskly with officials in tow, Mr. Dissanayake pays respects at the St. Anthony’s Catholic Shrine, the only permanent structure there, before returning to Jaffna, where at a public meeting earlier that day he pledged to safeguard Sri Lankan territory, resisting any “external force”. The symbolism of the visit, with the accompanying visuals and messaging played well in Sri Lanka, comes days after Tamil actor-politician Vijay’s demand in a political rally that India must retrieve Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka. The government subsequently announced it is also exploring the tourism potential of Katchatheevu, by making it more accessible from nearby Delft island, one of Jaffna’s off-track tourist destinations.
The competing claims made from India [Madras Presidency, specifically] and Ceylon to Katchatheevu date back to the 1920s, during British colonial times. The neighbours settled the matter some five decades later, through two bilateral agreements signed in 1974 and 1976, delineating an International Maritime Boundary Line, whereby Katchatheevu is firmly on the Sri Lankan side. In return, New Delhi got sovereign rights over Wadge Bank, located near Kanniyakumari, known for its rich resources.
Katchatheevu is a barren island, with no drinking water or sanitation. Every March, Sri Lanka waives visa controls to allow fishermen from India to worship along with their Sri Lankan counterparts at the St. Anthony’s festival. Around the annual two-day event, mobile toilets and drinking water booths are put up for pilgrims.
Political calculation
Bizarrely, though, half a century since India gave up its claim to Katchatheevu and recognised Sri Lanka’s sovereignty over it, politicians in India periodically rake up the issue. The political calculation driving the frequent call is the assumption that it could boost voter support if pitched as a solution to the enduring fisheries conflict affecting Tamil Nadu’s fishermen, a sizeable electoral constituency.
The fact that the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) were in power, respectively at the Centre and in Tamil Nadu, in the 1970s has offered political ammunition to their rivals, especially on the eve of State polls next year. Ahead of general elections last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of “callously giving away” the island to Sri Lanka. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar swiftly amplified this by blaming the two BJP rivals for compromising Indian fishermen’s rights in the Palk Strait.
Both Dravidian parties [DMK and Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, or AIADMK], have demanded its retrieval. In 2008, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa, as General Secretary of the AIADMK, petitioned the Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the 1974 and 1976 agreements were unconstitutional. Ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka in April 2025, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, urging the Union government to take steps to retrieve the Katchatheevu island. Subsequently, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said the island’s retrieval was “the only permanent solution” to the issues faced by the fishermen in the State.
Everyone calling for the island’s retrieval in India must know well that it is a far-fetched ask from a mostly friendly neighbour. In 2013, the Union government informed the Supreme Court that the question of gaining Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka did not arise, as “no territory belonging to India was ceded nor sovereignty relinquished since the area in question was in dispute and had never been demarcated”. In 2014, then Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi submitted before the Supreme Court that if India had to retrieve an island belonging to Sri Lanka, “we have to go to war”. The factors that keep the issue alive, despite diplomatic and legal resolution, are chiefly political, and in fact to do with the political economy of a depleting catch in a narrow stretch of water.
Fishermen of south India and northern Sri Lanka rely heavily on the resource-rich Palk Strait. However, with Tamil Nadu fishermen relentlessly resorting to bottom-trawling, a destructive fishing method that scoops out the seabed to maximise the catch and profits, this has severely affected the marine ecosystem. With the catch on the Indian side of the International Maritime Boundary Line diminishing over time, the Tamil Nadu fishing boats ventured into the Sri Lankan side, targeting a heavier net. Daily wage fishermen, working for wealthy boat owners in Tamil Nadu, periodically court arrest by the Sri Lankan Navy — over 230 arrests so far this year— a risk they take to secure their day’s earnings.
Bottom-trawling
Tamil fishermen in northern Sri Lanka, still reeling from the impact of the civil war that ended 16 years ago, contend they have no real chance of rebuilding their destroyed livelihoods, unless their counterparts across the Palk Strait give up bottom-trawling — a practice banned in Sri Lanka.
In bilateral talks with fisher leaders through the years, or petitions to politicians in India and Sri Lanka, all they have been asking their fellow, Tamil-speaking brothers is that they stop the practice. In ministerial level talks between India and Sri Lanka in 2016, New Delhi acknowledged this and agreed to expedite the transition towards ending the practice of bottom trawling “at the earliest”. But the practice continues.
Decades ago, fishermen from both sides used Katchatheevu as a resting point and a spot to dry out their nets. But in recent history, most arrests of Indian fishermen are made well past Katchatheevu, very close to Sri Lanka’s northern shores. Policymakers on the Indian side know where the problem lies. And politicians know that Katchatheevu offers no real solution to it. But unwilling to confront a key electorate with a difficult question, they habitually invoke it to divert attention from their own failure to resolve the festering fisheries conflict.
The competing claims made from India [Madras Presidency, specifically] and Ceylon to Katchatheevu date back to the 1920s, during British colonial times
The neighbours settled the matter some five decades later, through two bilateral agreements signed in 1974 and 1976, delineating an International Maritime Boundary Line, whereby Katchatheevu is firmly on the Sri Lankan side
In return, New Delhi got sovereign rights over Wadge Bank, located near Kanniyakumari, known for its rich resources.