GS Analyst: Daily Current Affairs

Context:

The shortage of Medical graduates and lack of Government Medical colleges in India awakens to promote equity by incentivizing migration to underserved areas, prioritizing scale-friendly policies over production restrictions for sustainable growth.

Demand-Supply Discrepancy in Medical Education

• Lack of availability: Demand for doctors surpasses availability, while seats for medical education also fall short.
• Less doctor graduates: Despite substantial growth in medical colleges and seats, India lags behind global counterparts in doctor per population ratio.
• Lack of Infrastructure: Small-sized medical colleges hinder scaling due to regulatory and financial constraints.

Constraints Affecting Public and Private Colleges

• Challenges: Public and private medical colleges face scalability challenges, including faculty shortages.
• More funds required: Government colleges offer education at lower prices but require subsidies to cover high costs.
• Need for cost reduction of medical education: Regulatory reforms and tech integration are vital for cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

Rural-Urban Divide

• Balancing Quality, Scale, and Equity: Competency-based curriculum aims to maintain doctor quality, influencing scalability limits.
• Need to enhance productivity: The US model demonstrates how resource utilization and innovative teaching methods can enhance productivity.
• Migration and urbanization of Doctors: Prioritizing equity over scale, National Medical Commission faces potential inefficiencies due to inter-state doctor migration.

Context:

Sustainable water management is critical to address impending food and nutrition security threats.

Importance of Wise Water Management

• Adoption of innovative, collaborative approaches is urged by UN food agencies to manage, conserve, and make water resources available.
• India’s agricultural usage: 60% of India's net sown area relies on rainfed agriculture, contributing significantly to food production.
• Balancing Freshwater Use: Addressing the balance between irrigated agriculture and freshwater use is essential for sustainable and resilient food production.

Threats:

• Degraded Freshwater Supplies: Approximately 40% of global land is degraded, reducing productivity for farmers, particularly small-scale ones.
• Agricultural Impact: Indian government projections using climate models indicate substantial declines in crop yields without adaptation measures.
• FAO's Initiatives: FAO is implementing a crop forecasting framework incorporating climate, soil, and market information in Indian states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

Steps to be taken

• State-specific interventions: The Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed Groundwater Systems project extended its reach to 638 habitations across seven drought-prone districts, implementing a comprehensive hydrological monitoring program.
• IFAD's Climate Adaptation Strategies: The focus is on merging modern technologies with traditional knowledge systems to build productive and resilient agricultural systems and value chains.
• WFP's Collaborative Efforts: The World Food Programme (WFP) collaborates with the Government of Odisha to devise solutions for smallholder farmers, with a special focus on empowering women.

Context:

Glacial Lake Outburst floods (GLOF), like the one in Sikkim, could increase due to global warming. These lakes must be monitored, risk-management systems developed.

Increasing Vulnerability

• GLOF in Sikkim: Recently, a catastrophic GLOF occurred in South Lhonak Lake, Sikkim, causing extensive damage to infrastructure and taking lives.
• Potential causes: Remote location and scarce monitoring hinder the precise identification of the GLOF's cause, potentially involving rainfall, landslides, avalanches, or an earthquake.
• Risks associated: Glacial lakes, formed by increased glacier melting, have become more frequent due to rising tropospheric temperatures, making them vulnerable.

Mounting Threat of GLOFs in India

• Regional Vulnerability: Vulnerable glacial lakes in states like Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, and Arunachal Pradesh necessitate immediate attention.
• Hills vs. Plains: Recent scientific studies indicate that over nine million people in High Mountain Asia are at risk of GLOFs, demanding urgent preventive measures.
• Mitigation and Preparedness methods: Rigorous monitoring, forecasting, and alert systems, combined with satellite and drone surveillance, are essential to mitigate GLOF threats.

Comprehensive Strategies

• Infrastructural safety: Rigorous safety standards for mountainous infrastructure projects and quality control measures are imperative to prevent GLOF-related damages.
• Impacts: Stringent regulation of constructions near rivers is crucial to safeguard communities from the initial impact of GLOF floods.
• Way forward: A scaled-up scientific assessment of glaciers in the Himalayan region is essential to understand their response to climate change and to develop effective disaster risk-reduction strategies.