The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the IDCF in order to intensify efforts to reduce child deaths due to diarrhoea.
The Ministry has made it a national priority to bring health outcomes among children to a level equitable with the rest of the world.
Through this initiative, the Ministry will mobilize health personnel, State Governments and other stakeholders to prioritize investment in control of diarrhea.
It aims to create mass awareness about the most effective and low-cost diarrhoea treatment— a combination of Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) solution and Zinc tablets.
ASHA worker would undertake distribution of ORS packets to households with under-five children in her village.
Besides this, introduction of Rotavirus vaccine under UIP will also help in reducing diarrhoea mortality due to rotavirus disease.
Emiliania huxleyi
A sudden change in the colour (blue waters to a milky turquoise) of the Bosphorus Strait that divides the continents of Europe and Asia in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul has surprised residents.
NASA said the milky colouration is “likely due to the growth of a particular phytoplankton called a coccolithophore”. Emiliania huxleyi is a species of coccolithophore.
This organism is plated with white calcium carbonate and, when present in large numbers, tend to turn the water a milky sheen.
One of the most successful life-forms on the planet, Emiliania huxleyi is a single-celled organism visible only under a microscope.
Its astonishing adaptability enables it to thrive in waters from the equator to the sub-Arctic.
Rescue wards in Thar desert
With an average of nearly 1,000 injuries a year, the wildlife in Thar desert has witnessed 60% mortality because of lack of transport to the main rescue centre at the Jodhpur zoo.
This has led to the depletion of wildlife, mainly chinkaras (Indian gazelles).
The Forest Department’s move to set up 17 rescue wards has come as a much-needed support to the Bishnoi community of western Rajasthan, which has been in the forefront of wildlife conservation.
Bishnois risk their lives to save gazelles from poachers and transport injured animals to Jodhpur.
Eklavya Model Residential Schools
Eklavya Model Residential School Scheme was started in 1998 and first school was started in the year 2000 in Maharashtra.
A total of 259 schools have been sanctioned during the last 17 years, out of which, 72 EMRS were sanctioned during last three years.
EMRSs have been functioning as institutions of excellence for tribal students. Results of these schools have been generally better than other Government schools in the tribal areas.
As per existing EMRS Guidelines of 2010, at least one EMRS is to be set up in each Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) / Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) having 50% ST population in the area.
More than 52 thousand tribal students are taking education in 161 EMR Schools of 26 States.
