The UN report highlights India’s vulnerability to drought.

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

• Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management.
• The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.
• The Convention’s 197 parties work together to improve the living conditions for people in drylands, maintain and restore land and soil productivity, and mitigate the effects of drought.

A study led by Dr. Carmel Harrington found that the BChE enzyme level in infants who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was significantly low.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

• It is also known as cot death, which is the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby.
• Most deaths happen during the first 6 months of a baby's life.
• Infants born prematurely or with a low birth weight are at greater risk.
• SIDS also tends to be slightly more common in baby boys.
• SIDS usually occurs when a baby is asleep, although it can occasionally happen while they're awake.
• Babies who died of SIDS showed lower levels of the butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzyme shortly after birth.
• A low level of the BChE enzyme affects a sleeping infant’s ability to wake up or respond to their environment.
• The enzyme is an important part of the autonomic nervous system of the body and controls unconscious and involuntary functions.

Buddhism

• Buddha in Sanskrit means awakened one, and the birth name of Buddha was Siddhartha Gautama.
• Wesak is the festival observed to commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha on the same day.
• Buddha’s first sermon took place in Sarnath while his Parinirvana took place in Kushinagar.
• Tilakkhana was the pali term used in religion for the three characteristics of all existence and beings such as impermanence, non-self, and suffering.
• Maitreya is the name given to the future Buddha, a bodhisattva residing in the Tushita heaven.
• Mahabodhi Temple Complex, the Sanchi monuments, Ajanta Caves, and Elephanta Caves are the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India associated with Buddhism.

The newly released National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) reconfirms that a large number of Indians have a preference for sons.

NFHS 5 (2019-2021)

• A large number of Indians have a preference for sons, the only exception is women in Meghalaya, among whom the preference is for more daughters than sons.
• The number of married people (age 15-49) who want more sons than daughters is several times the number who want more daughters than sons.
• A married person who has at least one son is less likely to want more children than another married person whose existing children do not include a son.
• In spite of these preferences, most Indians still believe an ideal family should include at least one daughter.
• The number of married men who want more sons than daughters (16%) is four times the number who want more daughters than sons (4%).
• Among women, the former preference is 5 times more prevalent than the latter, at 15% and 3% respectively.

Air pollution was responsible for 16.7 lakh deaths in India in 2019, or 17.8% of all deaths in the country that year.

The Lancet Planetary Health

• The Lancet Planetary Health is a gold open access journal that seeks to be the pre-eminent journal for inquiry into sustainable human civilizations in the Anthropocene.
• The report is released by the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, under the aegis of the Lancet Planetary Health.

Findings

• Globally, air pollution alone contributes to 66.7 lakh deaths, according to the report, which updates a previous analysis from 2015.
• Overall, pollution was responsible for an estimated 90 lakh deaths in 2019 (equivalent to one in six deaths worldwide), a number that has remained unchanged since the 2015 analysis.
• Ambient air pollution was responsible for 45 lakh deaths, and hazardous chemical pollutants for 17 lakhs, with 9 lakh deaths attributable to lead pollution.

Pollution in India

• The majority of the 16.7 lakh air pollution-related deaths in India – 9.8 lakh — were caused by PM2.5 pollution and another 6.1 lakh by household air pollution.
• India topped the air pollution death toll in 2019.
• According to the report, air pollution is most severe in the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
• This area contains New Delhi and many of the most polluted cities. Burning of biomass in households was the single largest cause of air pollution deaths in India, followed by coal combustion and crop burning.