Heart Health – Every Beat Counts

Why in News?

Recently, there has been a manifold increase in the cardiovascular disease and the world heart health day stresses the need to address the issue.

What is heart health day?

• World heart day – It is celebrated annually on September 29.
• Aim – To raise awareness about cardiovascular diseases, their risk factors, and preventive strategies.
• Genesis – The history of World Heart Day goes back to 1999, when the World Heart Federation (WHF) teamed up with the World Health Organization (WHO) to designate a day for global heart health awareness.
• 1st heart health day – The first World Heart Day was held on September 29, 2000.
• 25th heart health day – This year will mark 25 years of World Heart Day.
• This World Heart Day, we are telling the world: Don’t miss a beat

What is the status of heart health?

• World data – Each year, cardiovascular disease (CVD) claims over 20.5 million lives.
• Up to 80% of premature CVD deaths are preventable through affordable access to care, early screening, increased opportunities to make healthy choices in nutrition, and by staying active.
• Causes

• Indian scenario

What are the Common heart diseases?

• Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) – It arises when blood vessels supplying the heart narrow or become blocked due to plaque buildup.
• This reduces oxygen and nutrient flow to the heart muscles, causing chest pain (angina), shortness of breath, or heart attacks.
• Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction) – It happens when a coronary artery suddenly becomes completely, 100% blocked.
• Symptoms include severe chest pain, sweating, and breathlessness.
• Rapid medical response with treatment such as Primary PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) or thrombolysis can save lives.

• Cardiac Arrest – It is a sudden loss of heart function, breathing, and consciousness.
• Often triggered by electrical disturbances, it can be fatal within minutes without immediate intervention such as CPR or defibrillation.
• Training and readiness for such emergencies is vital.
• Hypertension (high blood pressure) – It occurs when blood pumps through arteries at persistently high pressure.
• Often called a silent killer, if left untreated, hypertension can lead to a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, or heart failure.
• Heart Failure & Arrhythmias – It arises when the heart cannot pump blood efficiently, resulting in fluid retention, fatigue, and breathlessness.
• Arrhythmias involve irregular heartbeats: too fast, too slow, or erratic.

What are the Heart-healthy habits?

• Adopting healthy routines – Simple practices such as regular check-ups, medication adherence, avoiding tobacco, limiting alcohol, and staying socially engaged reinforce heart protection.
• A balanced diet – It plays a central role in heart disease prevention.
• Focus on lean proteins, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats such as olive oil and nuts. Limit salt, red meat, sugary drinks, and trans fats.

• Physical activity – It strengthens the heart, lowers blood pressure, improves cholesterol, and aids weight control.
• Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise weekly, plus muscle-strengthening activities at least twice per week.
• Mental health factors – These are critical, yet often overlooked risk modulators.
• Prioritise 7–9 hours of quality sleep each night.
• Use relaxation techniques, mindfulness, or counselling to manage stress
• Building the heart’s endurance through cardiac rehabilitation
• Preventive care – Cardiologists play a vital role in the diagnosis, management, and prevention of cardiovascular disease.
• At cardiac care units and cardiology centres, experts use tools including ECGs, echocardiograms, stress tests, blood tests, and cardiac catheterisation to assess heart health.
• The importance of World Heart Day lies in its power to raise mass awareness about heart diseases.
• Encourage early screening and detection, inspire governments and policymakers and motivate individuals to adopt healthier lifestyles

Reference

The Hindu| Heart Health in India

Fentanyl - Uses and Concerns of the U.S.A

Why in News?

Recently, In the latest version of the Major’s List sent to the U.S. Congress, President Donald Trump listed 23 countries as being significant sources and/or sites of transit of illicit drugs  especially fentanyl that he said threaten the U.S and its people.

What is the Major’s List?

• Source countries – The list of countries includes India, Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan.
• Compilation – The Major’s List is compiled every year.
• Contents – It highlight regions where geography, commerce and/or industry contribute to the flow of narcotics or their precursor chemicals into international markets.
• The U.S. State Department has said that a country’s presence on the list doesn’t necessarily reflect the strength of its counter narcotics efforts.
• Designation – It is based on whether drugs or the chemicals used to make them are being produced or transported through that country in important quantities.
• Failed countries – Afghanistan, Bolivia, Myanmar, Colombia, and Venezuela were described as having “failed demonstrably” to meet their obligations under international drug-control agreements.

What is fentanyl?

• Fentanyl – It is a synthetic opioid and the leading cause of overdose drug deaths in the U.S.
• Development – It was first developed for medical use in the 1960s.
• Medical uses

• Symptoms

• Adverse effects

• In illicit settings, however, fentanyl is about 50-times more potent than heroin.
• Just 2 mg can be fatal because it’s an agonist of the mu-opioid receptor.

Mu-opioid receptor is a protein on nerve cells that normally responds to the body’s own pain-modulating molecules.

• When fentanyl binds these receptors in sufficiently high quantities, it depresses the brainstem respiratory centres that control automatic breathing and crosses the blood-brain barrier and becomes highly concentrated in the central nervous system.
• Ultimately, the body suffers hypoventilation and respiratory depression.
• Opioid overdoses are reversed by naloxone, a competitive mu-opioid receptor antagonist that displaces opioids from the receptor and restores normal breathing.
• Need for administration – It is to be administered quickly because untreated respiratory failure can lead to brain injury and death within minutes.
• Mortality in U.S – According to U.S. data, from August 2023 to August 2024, more than 57,000 Americans died of opioid overdose, most of them involving fentanyl.
• The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported in 2022 that it seized 50.6 million fentanyl-laced pills and enough powdered fentanyl to account for 379 million potentially deadly doses, an amount sufficient to kill the entire U.S. population.

Why is fentanyl hard to regulate?

• Nature of production – While heroin or cocaine are derived from plants, fentanyl is made in laboratories using compounds called its precursors.
• The most important of these are N-phenethyl-4-piperidone (NPP) and 4-anilino-N-phenethylpiperidine (4-ANPP).
• Legitimate use – These substances have legitimate industrial and pharmaceutical uses but they can also be diverted to illicit supply chains.
• Role of precursor compound – In a counterfeit laboratory, the precursors are processed into fentanyl powder by chemical reactions common in organic chemistry.
  • First, NPP is converted into 4-ANPP in a reductive amination reaction, where a nitrogen-bearing fragment is attached to the NPP ring and stabilised by a mild reducing agent.
  • Then, 4-ANPP undergoes an acylation reaction where an acyl group (R–C (=O)) is attached to the nitrogen atom, yielding fentanyl.
• These reactions can be carried out with ordinary glassware, solvents, and moderate amounts of heat.
• Once traffickers obtain the precursor compounds, they can easily turn them into fentanyl.
• Only very small amounts of precursors are required to make large quantities of fentanyl.
• These substances can be shipped discreetly, the trade has been difficult to regulate.

How is fentanyl supplied?

• Supply chain – The international fentanyl supply chain involves multiple actors.
• Major players – China and India play significant roles in the production of precursor chemicals, some of which are diverted into illegal channels.
• Mexican cartels are central in processing these precursors into fentanyl powder.
• Made into pills – Once produced, the powder is pressed into counterfeit pills or mixed with other narcotics and smuggled into the U.S., especially through its southwest border with Mexico.

What is the action taken by U.S?

• Criminal prosecution – In response, the U.S. government has pursued criminal prosecutions of companies and executives, trade penalties, diplomatic pressure, and enhanced law enforcement.
• In January 2025, two Indian companies, Raxuter Chemicals and Athos Chemicals, were charged with conspiring to export fentanyl precursors to the U.S. and Mexico.
• Bhavesh Lathiya, a senior executive at Raxuter Chemicals, was arrested in New York and charged with smuggling.
• Denial of visa – Following these cases, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi revoked and denied visas for certain business executives and their families associated with trafficking fentanyl precursors.
• Imposition of tariffs – In February 2025, the Trump administration imposed tariffs of 25% on Canadian and Mexican imports and an additional 10% on Chinese imports citing fentanyl trafficking as one of the motivations.
• The tariffs on Canada and Mexico were suspended after those governments agreed to strengthen border enforcement, tariffs on China came into force.
• Domestic measures – The DEA has intensified operations to seize fentanyl shipments, dismantle trafficking networks, and intercept counterfeit pills that resemble legitimate drugs, such as oxycodone.
• In parallel, naloxone is being distributed more widely while awareness campaigns have warned consumers that counterfeit pills may contain lethal amounts of fentanyl.
• Treatment programmes for opioid dependence are being reinforced to reduce demand and provide alternatives to those struggling with addiction.

Reference

The Hindu| Fentanyl

Typhoon Ragasa

Why in News?

Super Typhoon Ragasa strike Hong Kong with fierce winds and pounding rain, and headed into southern China recently.

• It is the most intense tropical cyclone recorded in 2025. At its peak, Ragasa was moving with the maximum sustained winds of 280 kmph.
• Ragasa has been referred to as a super typhoon because it is a Category 5 tropical cyclone.
• Formation - Ragasa originated from a tropical depression and rapidly intensified into a super typhoon.
• Causes – It causes death and widespread damage across the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and southern China.
• In Philippines - The storm first made landfall in the northern Philippines, causing heavy rain, landslides.
• In Taiwan - As the typhoon passed, a barrier lake burst its banks in Hualien County, releasing a "tsunami from the mountains".

A barrier lake, or landslide-dammed lake, forms when natural material like rocks, dirt, or debris from landslides block a river or valley.

• In Hong Kong - Ragasa skirted Hong Kong, bringing the city to a standstill with powerful winds, heavy rain, and storm surges.
• In Southern China - Ragasa made its final landfall in Yangjiang, Guangdong province.

Formation of Tropical cyclones

• Tropical cyclones form over warm ocean waters near the equator.
• When the warm, moist air from the ocean surface rises upward, a lower air pressure area is formed below.
• Air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure rushes into this low-pressure area, eventually rising, and it becomes warm and moist.
• As warm, moist air rises, it cools down, and the water in the air forms clouds and thunderstorms.
• This whole system of clouds and winds gains strength and momentum using the ocean’s heat, and the water that evaporates from its surface.
• Classification - The weakest tropical cyclones are called tropical depressions.
• If a depression intensifies such that its maximum sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour [63 kmph], the tropical cyclone becomes a tropical storm.
• Storm systems with wind speeds of 119 kmph and above are classified as hurricanes, typhoons, or tropical cyclones.
• The category of a tropical cyclone is determined by its sustained wind speed, as measured by the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
• It is classified into 5 categories - Category 1 to Category 5.

Reference

The Indian Express | Super Typhoon Ragasa

Digital Arrest

Why in news?

Recently, an ex-banker in Delhi, was allegedly defrauded of nearly 23 crores in digital fraud, amid the rise in "digital arrest" cases.

• Digital arrest – It is a fraudulent tactic used by cybercriminals to extort money from individuals by falsely accuse individuals of breaking the law.
• These scammers pose as officials from organizations such as customs, income tax department or even central investigative agencies, and initiate contact with victims via phone calls.
• Subsequently, they request that the victims switch to video communication through platforms like WhatsApp and Skype.
• The scammers then threaten the victims with a digital arrest warrant, citing various reasons such as financial misconduct, tax evasion, or other legal violations.
• Goal - Intimidate victim into paying money or providing sensitive personal details.
• From phishing emails to financial fraud and ransomware attacks, cybercriminals use various tactics to steal data and money.
• Modus Operandi of Scammers – Includes fake authority claims, threat of arrest, creating panic, request for video communication, fake police station set-up, demand for money to “settle the matter” and avoid arrest.
• Safeguard measures - Verify the source, Be suspicious of immediate payment requests, avoid sharing personal details, Report suspicious calls, Stay vigilant.

There is no provision for digital arrest under Indian criminal law. Staying vigilant and informed is the best defense against such frauds.

Quick Facts

References

1. India Today | Ex-banker in Delhi, held in digital arrest
2. NITI Aayog | Digital Arrest

Judicial appointments - Memorandum of Procedure (MoP)

Why in news?

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) urging the finalisation of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts.

Fourth Judges Case (2015) – The SC struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act and the 99^th Constitutional Amendment, which executive a final say in the appointment of judges in HC and the SC, which revived the collegium system.

• The MoP for appointing judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts is a crucial agreement between the Indian judiciary and the executive.
• The MoP governs the collegium system, a judicial innovation not explicitly written into the Constitution.
• It contains a set of guidelines for making appointments to the Supreme Court and High Court.
• For High Courts, proposals for appointments are initiated by the Chief Justice of the High Court, sent to the Supreme Court Collegium (SCC) for recommendations, and then approved by the President.
• For transfers, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) leads the consultation with senior Supreme Court judges and considers views from relevant Chief Justices and personal factors of the judge being transferred. 
• Proposed reforms in the MoP –
  • Establishment of Permanent secretariats – To be set up in every High Court and in the Supreme Court to maintain data on candidates and vacancies, and to ensure institutional memory.
  • Implementing Transparent application-based process - Replacing the informal system with a formal, open application process so that every deserving candidate, including from the Supreme Court Bar, can be considered.
  • Publishing eligibility Criteria - Codification of verifiable eligibility benchmarks such as years of practice, reported judgments, academic contributions, and pro bono work, against which candidates must be assessed.
  • Creating grievance redressal mechanism – To address complaint process to address grievances and uphold integrity in appointments.

References

1. The Hindu | MoP for judicial appointments
2. Economic Times| MoP for judicial appointments
3. Department of Justice | MoP for judicial appointments

ECINET Portal

Why in news?

Recently, the Election Commission of India (ECI) launches e-sign feature for addition, deletion, and correction of voter names, to verify their identity using their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers.

• ECINET – It is a one-stop platform created by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for voters, officials, and other stakeholders.
• Aim - To integrate all election-related services.
• It integrates over 40 of the ECI's existing web and mobile applications into a single, user-friendly interface.

ECINET subsumed existing Apps like the Voter Helpline App, Voter Turnout App, cVIGIL, Suvidha 2.0, ESMS, Saksham and KYC App.

• Operationalized during – The bye-elections to the 5 Assembly constituencies of Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and West Bengal, in June, 2025.
• Key features –
  • ECINET offers a centralized hub for all election-related services.
  • Voter registration – Electors can use the app to submit applications for voter registration, deletion, and corrections.
  • Electoral information – The platform provides access to electoral rolls, allows users to check their names, and download their e-EPIC (electronic voter card).
  • Polling station details – Users can easily find the location of their polling station.
  • Real-time updates – The app delivers live updates on election trends, such as voter turnout during bye-elections.
  • Submitting Complaints – Citizens can submit complaints related to elections through the app, which integrates the functionality of the cVIGIL application.
  • Easy access – It  will enable users to access relevant electoral data on their desktops or smartphones.
• Recent updates and implementation –
  • E-sign feature – An e-sign feature that uses an Aadhaar-linked mobile number to verify the identity of applicants for voter additions, deletions, and corrections (Response to concerns over fraudulent deletion requests).
  • Improved voter turnout reporting – In June 2025 bye-elections, ECINET enabled presiding officers to directly upload voter turnout trends (Replaced a manual process and reduced reporting delays).
  • Faster Index Cards – ECINET has enabled the faster publication of post-election Index Cards by digitizing the process, making constituency-level election data available within 72 hours of result declarations.
  • The platform has been actively used for tasks like collecting Enumeration Forms in the Bihar Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in July 2025.

References

1. The Hindu |ECINET Portal
2. PIB | ECINET

Apterichtus kanniyakumari

Why in news?

A new species of finless snake eel named have discovered in Kanniyakumari.

• It is a finless snake eel species.
• Scientific name – Apterichtus kanniyakumari.
• Genus – Apterichtus.
  • It is the 16^th species discovered by the National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (NBFGR) team from the Indian coast.
• Discovery location – Colachel coast in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.
• The specimens were collected from deep-sea trawl landings at a depth of about 100 meters.
• Nomenclature - Named after Kanniyakumari to honor the district’s cultural, linguistic, historical and geographical significance.
• Morphology -
  • Appearance - Golden-yellow body with a pale white underside on its head and three distinct black blotches.
  • One blotch is located behind the eye, one is at the corner of the mouth (rictus), and one is behind the origin of the rictus.
  • Size - The eel measures less than 40 cm in length.
• Sex - Sex of the specimens could not be confirmed.
• Distinguishing characteristics - It can be differentiated from similar species by its head length, tail length, and body depth at the gill openings.
• Genetical variation - Genetic analysis confirmed it as a distinct species.
  • It is closely related to another local eel, Apterichtus nanjilnaduensis, which was named after the ancient name of the same region.
• Significance – The finding highlights the unexplored biodiversity of the Arabian Sea and the rich marine ecosystem of the Kanniyakumari region.

Reference

The Hindu | Apterichtus kanniyakumari