What to Read in The Hindu Editorial( Topic and Syllabus wise)

Editorial 1 : Fields of Viksit Bharat

Context: 7 imperatives to build a viksit agri economy by 2047

 

Introduction: Indian agriculture is at a critical juncture, balancing the need for food security, rural livelihoods, and sustainability amid global and domestic challenges. While strides have been made in productivity, India continues to lag in adoption of several modern technology innovations.
 To build a viksit agri economy by 2047, here are seven imperatives for the Indian agri industry.

 

Use of AI in Agriculture

• Current Developments: India is starting to deploy AI for critical use cases such as weather forecasting, pest detection and control, and crop yield optimisation.
• Limitations/Challenges: Penetration is limited to a small subset of tech-savvy farmers.
• Global Scenario: In the US and Europe, generative AI tools have started offering precision farming at scale, integrating large datasets to provide real-time agronomic insights.
• Recommendations: For at-scale integration and accessibility of in India, it would be helpful to develop vernacular AI platforms for smallholder farmers, partner with AgTechs to create affordable AI solutions, and disseminate AI-based advisory services through government programmes.

 

Regenerative Farming

• Current Developments: India has started in pockets with regenerative farming practices such as organic farming and zero-budget natural farming.
• Limitations/Challenges: Monoculture practices and excessive chemicals and fertiliser use dominates most farming systems, leading to soil degradation and biodiversity loss.
• Global Scenario: France and the US lead in regenerative agriculture through structured policies, farmer incentives and R&D on sustainable practices.
• Recommendations: The focus should be on a national regenerative farming policy and private sector-led R&D for capital efficient agro-ecology practices.

 

Robotics and Automation

• Limitations/Challenges: Robotics adoption in India is limited due to high costs and a large labour force in rural areas.
  1. Basic automation tools like seeders and sprayers are more common, but advanced technologies such as robotic harvesters are inaccessible to most farmers.
• Recommendations: To build a foundation for robotics and automation, India must develop low-cost robotic solutions tailored for small farms, set up AgTech hubs for testing and deploying automation and promote public-private partnerships to scale robotics innovation.

 

Alternative Protein Market

• Current Developments: India’s alternative protein market is in its infancy, driven by startups.
• Limitations/Challenges: Affordability and scalability remain major barriers to adoption.
• Global Scenario: EU leads in alternative proteins with government-backed initiatives and cutting-edge R&D.
• Recommendations: Focus must be on collaborating with global leaders to improve production, formulation techniques and public awareness on lab-grown proteins.

 

Digital Twins

• Digital twins are limited in Indian agriculture.
• Limitations/Challenges: Field trials are manual and time-consuming, increasing costs and delaying the deployment of new crop technologies.
• Global Scenario: US employs digital twin technology at-scale to model field trials virtually, reducing costs and speeding up the launch of agri-inputs.
• Recommendations: Partnering with AgTechs to pilot such projects, training researchers in digital modelling and exploring tax incentives for investing in digital twin solutions can not only boost transparency but also unlock productivity.

 

Blockchain

• Blockchain is still at an experimental stage in India, with pilot projects in food traceability.
• Limitations/Challenges: Wider adoption is hindered by lack of infrastructure and farmer awareness.
• Global Scenario: China has integrated blockchain across multiple agricultural supply chains, ensuring transparency, reducing fraud and improving market access.
• Recommendations: Export crops should be a focus for India blockchain scale-up, to materially improve price realisation for farmers.

 

Climate-smart farming

• Programmes like PM-KUSUM promote renewable energy for irrigation, large-scale climate-smart initiatives are limited.
• Recommendations: India needs to scale up micro-irrigation technologies, invest in climate-resilient seed varieties and bio-based crop protection products, and leverage AI to develop localised climate advisory systems.

 

Conclusion and Way Forward

• By embracing innovation and fostering public-private collaborations, India can become a global leader in sustainable and technologically advanced farming.
• The need is to customise and adapt farming practices based on the Indian agri context.

To act on these imperatives will require a strategic mix of investments, policy reforms, and grassroots engagement to ensure that smallholder farmers are not left behind in Viksit Bharat.

Editorial 2 : A Virus in Perspective

Context: HMPV virus – it’s not the pandemic

 

Introduction: About HMPV (Human metapneumovirus)

• First detected in 2001, HMPV (Human metapneumovirus) is a virus from the family called Pneumoviridae and has been in circulation even earlier in human populations.
• HMPV is well known to the medical community in terms of its characteristics, illness caused, prevention, detection and management.
• Many people in India would have been exposed to HMPV because it is a common virus.

 

Spread and Infection

• HMPV usually spreads from infected people through droplets, infected surfaces, and contact such as handshakes.
• The typical period between infection and appearance of symptoms is three to six days.
• Symptoms can include nasal congestion, sneezing, cough, breathlessness, fever, and sore throat; similar to the ones caused by common cold or flu.
• Like most respiratory viruses that affect humans, HMPV can cause more severe respiratory illnesses especially in infants, young children, the very elderly, and those who have weakened immune systems.

 

Prevention

• HMPV can be prevented by following the usual precautions of the flu season.
  1. These include wearing masks, avoiding touching the face, frequently washing hands, avoiding crowded places, especially by the very young and the elderly.
• routinely wearing masks could help reduce many high-burden diseases in India including seasonal flu, pneumonia, and tuberculosis.

 

Managing the Illness

• Management of HMPV is similar to that of other respiratory viruses and principally revolves around symptomatic management including hydrating, taking warm fluids, resting, and taking paracetamol for managing high fever.
• It is important to keep an eye out for warning signs, particularly in infants and the elderly. These include breathing fast, difficulty in breathing, persistent high fever, incessant coughing, vomiting, and infants being unable to feed.
  1. One should seek medical attention from a doctor if these symptoms appear.

 

Recent Winter Illness in the Country

• Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has found that HMPV has caused approximately 3% of the cases of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) in the current season.
• The vast majority of cases have been caused by SARS-CoV-2 (that caused the Covid19 pandemic and is still circulating in the country), Influenza A, Influenza B, RSV and other pathogens.
• This distribution typically changes month-on-month.

 

HMPV: Not a Cause of Concern

• For an infection like HMPV, the absolute numbers of cases are not important and need not be counted — only overall trends in virus circulation in the country are useful to know.
• There is no data to suggest that the circulating HMPV has mutated in any way that is of public health concern.

 

Comparing SARS-CoV-2 and HMPV

• When SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in 2019, it was a truly novel virus for the world. At the time, no one in the world had been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 or had specific immunity against it.
• In contrast, people across the world have been exposed to HMPV for decades and the virus is well studied.
• HMPV and SARS-CoV-2 belong to two very different virus families with fundamentally different characteristics and epidemiology, with strong seasonality seen for HMPV unlike SARS-CoV-2.
• Both viruses cause different severity of symptoms particularly over the long-term and the affected population segments do not fully overlap.
• HMPV in general causes milder illness with deaths being very rare and no long-term post-viral symptoms.

 

Steps Taken by the Government

• India’s Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has taken prompt action during this flu season, keeping in mind the sensitivities around HMPV.
• Learning from the Covid19 pandemic, ICMR and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) are closely monitoring surveillance data across the country.
• The national and state governments are also communicating proactively.

 

Way Forward and Conclusion

• Niti Aayog published its framework report on future pandemic preparedness and emergency response in August 2024. The recommendations of this report should be implemented on priority along with increased investments in R&D for vaccines and counter measures against pathogens of concern, which have been identified by the World Health Organisation.
  1. This will help India to be fully prepared for future outbreaks, epidemics from known and emerging infections.
• Air pollution significantly exacerbates respiratory illnesses, including ILI and SARI, and is one of the leading drivers of mortality globally.

It’s time we swiftly and effectively act on air pollution across the country through a multi-sectoral and all-of-government approach