Coastal Red Sand Dunes

Scientists recently urged the Government of Andhra Pradesh to protect the coastal red sand dunes of Visakhapatnam of the glacial period.

Major Points:

• Visakhapatnam is fortunate to have a number of significant geological sites. One of them is the Erra Matti Dibbalu, or "red sand dunes" of the coast.
• Location and Extent: The site is situated on the coast, about 20 km to the northeast of Visakhapatnam City and 4 km to the southwest of Bheemunipatnam.
• 20 sq km is the approximate size of the area where the Erra Matti Dibbalu is located, and the entire area has been designated as a Geo Heritage Site.

About Geo Heritage Site:

• The Geological Survey of India (GSI) designated this site as a geo-heritage site in 2014, and the Andhra Pradesh government added it to the list of "protected sites" in 2016.
• This site is geologically, archaeologically, and anthropologically significant, and it should be preserved for future study and evaluation.

Site Individuality:

• The late quaternary geologic age is represented by the red sediments, which are part of the earth's evolution.
• They have badland topography with various geomorphic landforms and features, such as gullies, sand dunes, buried channels, beach ridges, paired terraces, the valley in the valley, wave-cut terrace, knick point, and waterfalls.

Shows the real-time consequences of climate change:

• The sea (Bay of Bengal) was at least 5 kilometres behind the current coastline around 18,500 years ago.
• Since then, it has been undergoing continuous active changes until approximately 3,000 years ago, and the changes are still ongoing.

Geochemically unchanged:

• Because the sediments were geochemically unaltered, the top light-yellow sand unit, which is thought to have been deposited around 3,000 years ago, could not achieve the red coloration.
• These sediments are nonfossiliferous and have been deposited on top of the khondalite basement.
• The dunes are made up of light yellow sand dunes at the top, a brick red sand unit in the middle, and a reddish brown concretion bearing sand unit with yellow sand at the bottom.
• The bottom yellow sand unit is fluvial, while the three units above it are aeolian in origin.

The Site's Importance:

• Examine the effects of climate change, as Erra Matti Dibbalu has lived through both glacial and warm periods.
• The site is approximately 18,500 to 20,000 years old, can be linked to the last glacial period, and will provide information about the archaeological history.
• The site is also archaeologically significant, with artifact studies indicating an Upper Palaeolithic horizon and cross dating assigned to the Late Pleistocene epoch, which is 20,000 BC.
• The site was inhabited by prehistoric man, as excavations in the area revealed stone implements from three distinct periods, as well as Neolithic pottery.
• Such sand deposits are uncommon and have only been reported from three locations in south Asia's tropical regions: Teri Sands in Tamil Nadu, Erra Matti Dibbalu in Visakhapatnam, and one more in Sri Lanka.
• They do not occur in equatorial or temperate regions for a variety of scientific reasons, making them geologically significant.

Google's New Anti-Misinformation Initiative

Google's Jigsaw subsidiary is launching a new anti-misinformation project in India, with the goal of preventing misleading information from inciting violence.

Important Points

About the Initiative:

• Cutting to the chase: The initiative will use "prebunking" videos, which will be distributed on the company's YouTube platform and other social media sites to counter false claims before they become widespread.
• Collaboration: Jigsaw has produced five videos in three languages in collaboration with the Alfred Landecker Foundation, a pro-democracy organisation based in Germany, the philanthropic investment firm Omidya Network India, and a number of smaller regional partners.
• After watching the videos, viewers will be asked to complete a brief multiple-choice questionnaire to assess what they have learned about misinformation.
• Expected outcomes: According to the company's recent research on the subject, viewers were 5% more likely to identify misinformation after watching such videos. The findings are expected to be released in the summer of 2023.

An experiment in different countries:

• Europe: In the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Google recently conducted an experiment in Europe to counter anti-refugee narratives online.
• India: The experiment in India will be larger in scope because it will deal with multiple local languages — Bengali, Hindi, and Marathi — and will cover various sections of a country with a population of over a billion people.
• Misinformation spreads quickly in India, as it does in other countries, primarily through social media, causing political and religious tensions.

Actions of the Government of India:

Channels that are blocked:

• The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has used "extraordinary powers" to block YouTube channels, as well as some Twitter and Facebook accounts, that are allegedly spreading harmful misinformation.

Services for text messaging:

• Inflammatory messages have also spread through Meta's messaging service Whatsapp, which has over 200 million Indian users.
• After false claims about child abductors led to mass beatings of more than a dozen people, some of whom died, the company limited the number of times a message could be forwarded in 2018.

About Misinformation/Fake News (Yellow Journalism)

• Fake news is information, stories, or hoaxes that are intended to misinform or deceive readers.
• These stories are typically written to influence people's opinions, push a political agenda, or cause confusion, and they can be a profitable business for online publishers.
• Fake news is not a new phenomenon associated with the rise of social media; on the contrary, governments and political actors (anyone in the business of mobilising public opinion) have always invested in disinformation campaigns to build narratives of their choosing since ancient Greece.

Factors Contributing to the Spread of Fake News in India

• Erosion of Media Ethics: The news media is no longer regarded as an arbiter of'real news.' The media is said to be an echo chamber for the ruling political class.
• As a result of complicit and motivated reporting, the news media has lost credibility and has become a source of fake news.
• The advent of social media has decentralised the creation and dissemination of fake news.
• The sheer size of the internet (over 35 million users in India) and social media users (an estimated 20 million WhatsApp users alone) makes tracing the origin of fake news nearly impossible.
• Polarization of society: The growing ideological divide in society has made it easier to spread fake news.
• In India, there is no specific legislation dealing with fake news.
• In India, free publication or broadcast of news stems from the Fundamental Right to Free Expression enshrined in Article 19 of the Constitution.
• Confirmation Bias: Studies have shown that people are less concerned with discovering the "truth" behind a news item and more concerned with finding evidence to support their preferred narrative.

How should we deal with fake news?

• The current response to fake news consists primarily of three components: rebuttal, removal of the fake news item, and public education.
• It is a type of fact-checking in which fake news is debunked by pointing out errors such as mismatch, malicious editing, and misattribution.
• Fake news removal: Algorithms are used by technology companies such as Facebook and YouTube to proactively remove fake news from their platforms.
• Furthermore, WhatsApp has placed a limit on forwarding messages in order to limit the spread of fake news.
• Educating end-users to be more discerning news consumers by informing them of verification tools that allow them to confirm the accuracy of a news item before sharing it.
• Another method promoted by the government is tracking the'source' of fake news. For this reason, the government intends to de-anonymize all social media accounts.
• However, this provision has been criticized for invading privacy, restricting free speech, and establishing a surveillance state.

The Way Forward

• While the aforementioned steps are necessary, it is not clear that they are sufficient in and of themselves to address the larger 'political' problem posed by fake news, as Given the decentralised nature of dissemination, it is impossible to completely remove fake news even after rebuttal.
• It may be possible to refute fake news, but the 'fake news factory,' motivated by a political agenda, will continue to produce similar stories to advance its preferred narrative.
• The act of rebuttal reinforces the false narrative being promoted. Because the act of rebuttal is limited to the original framework of the fake news.

National Bamboo Mission

• The National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has recently been reorganized, and the Ministry of Agriculture has formed an Advisory Group to streamline the development of the bamboo sector.

About The National Bamboo Mission:

• The National Bamboo Mission (NBM), which has been reorganised, was introduced in 2018–19 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS).
• NBM primarily focuses on the development of the entire value chain of the bamboo industry to connect producers with consumers, starting with planting materials, plantations, the establishment of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing, micro, small & medium enterprises, skilled manpower, and brand-building initiatives in a cluster approach mode.
• Objective: To expand the area covered by bamboo plantations on public and private lands that are not covered in forests in order to supplement farm income and improve climate change resilience.
• establishing connections between farmers and markets to help farmer producers find a ready market for the bamboo they are growing and to boost the supply of suitable raw materials to the domestic industry.
• In addition, it works to improve the skills of traditional bamboo craftsmen in accordance with the demands of modern markets through partnerships with leading businesses and institutions.
• The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare serves as the nodal ministry.

What Potential Does Bamboo Have?

Significance:

• A new phase of the bamboo industry is being ushered in by the opening of numerous resource utilization options.
• A diverse group of plants called bamboo can provide people with ecological, economic, and livelihood security.
• Recently, the Prime Minister opened the new Bengaluru (Kempagowda) Airport terminal, demonstrating the adaptability of bamboo as an architectural and structural material and defining its future as "green steel."
• The potential of bamboo is vast and extends beyond its use as a structural and design component in the building industry.
• Bamboo granules that can be moulded are environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic. Due to its rapid rate of growth and abundance, bamboo is a dependable source for the production of ethanol and bioenergy.
• The market for lifestyle items made of bamboos, such as cutlery, home decor, handicrafts, and cosmetics, is also expanding.

Indian Bamboo Production Status:

• With 136 species of bamboo, India has the most area covered in bamboo (13.96 million ha) and is the second-richest country in terms of bamboo diversity after China (125 indigenous and 11 exotic).

Programs to promote bamboo:

• Bamboo Groups: 22 bamboo clusters have been virtually inaugurated in the nine states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and Karnataka by the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare.
• Recent revisions to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Minor Forest Produce have been made by the Central Government (MFP).
• MFP covers all plant-derived non-timber forest products, such as bamboo, canes, fodder, leaves, waxes, resins, and a variety of food items like nuts, wild fruits, lac, tusser, etc.
• Bamboo has been removed from the definition of "tree" in the Indian Forest Act of 1927, which was updated in 2017.
• As a result, no permission is required for felling or transit, so anyone can engage in the cultivation of bamboo and the sale of its products.
• FPOs (Farmer Producer Organizations): In five years, 10,000 new FPOs will be created.
• FPOs assist farmers in a variety of ways, such as teaching them better farming techniques, grouping together input purchases, providing transportation, connecting them to markets, and helping them realise better prices by cutting out middlemen.

Way Forward

• The National Bamboo Mission's goals must be carried out by the states so that they can support the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan through a "Aatmanirbhar Krishi" (self-reliant farming).
• India should aim to establish itself in international markets for both engineered and handcrafted goods by increasing exports even more given the abundance of bamboo and its quickly expanding industry.

National Telemedicine Service Of India: eSanjeevani

• eSanjeevani, India's national telemedicine service, recently attained 8 crore teleconsultations.
• By registering 1 crore consultations in roughly 5 weeks, it broke all previous records.

About eSanjeevani:

• This is a national doctor-to-doctor telemedicine service that aims to give patients a digital platform alternative to traditional in-person consultations.

• The eSanjeevani application has generated more than 45,000 ABHA IDs as a part of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (ABDHM).
• Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, and Gujarat are the top ten states for using this platform.

Two Verticles:

Program for Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centers (AB-HWCs):

• By offering aided teleconsultations, it aims to close the digital health gap between urban areas and rural areas.
• It makes sure that Ayushman Bharat Scheme e-beneficiaries can access the benefits to which they are entitled.
• The AB-HWCs established at the state level serve as spokes in this vertical's hub-and-spoke model, which is mapped with the hub (composed of MBBS/Specialty/Super-Specialty doctors) at the zonal level.
• 1,09,748 AB-HWC and 14,188 Hubs have successfully used this model, resulting in a total of 7,11,58,968 teleconsultations.

eSanjeevaniOPD:

• It serves both urban and rural residents.
• It makes use of technology to make doctor consultations accessible from the patient's home, regardless of location, via smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
• 2,22,026 specialists, physicians, and other health professionals have been trained and hired by eSanjeevaniOPD.
• Impressively, this platform has treated more than 4.34 lakh patients in a single day.
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology's premier research and development organisation, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Mohali, has created the eSanjeevaniOPD - Stay Home OPD .

Relevance:

• People in rural areas who do not have easy access to medical specialists who are located in cities may find these platforms to be game-changing.
• Time and money are saved by telemedicine. Additionally, these platforms are required to address issues like Covid-19 and are consistent with the government's vision of "Digital India."