📝 Malaria[1][2][3]
🚀 A life-threatening disease caused by Plasmodium, a genus of protozoa ⇒ Transmitted to humans by female Anopheles mosquitoes ⇒ Preventable and curable.
👉🏽 5 Plasmodium species cause malaria in humans: P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale, and P. knowlesi ⇒ P. falciparum (dominant in Africa) and P. vivax (dominant outside sub-Saharan Africa) pose the greatest threat.
🚀 World Malaria Day: Observed annually on April 25 ⇒ Theme for 2025 is “Malaria Ends with Us: Reinvest, Reimagine, Reignite.”
🚀 India aims to eliminate malaria by 2030 ⇒ Specific goal: Zero indigenous cases by 2027.
🚀 World Malaria Report 2024: Released by WHO ⇒ India recorded a 69% drop in cases and a 68% reduction in deaths between 2017 and 2023 ⇒ India contributed 0.8% of global cases in 2023 and exited the WHO’s High Burden to High Impact (HBHI) group in 2024.
👉🏽 To date, 45 countries and one territory (Reunion Island) have been declared malaria-free.
👉🏽 The African Region accounts for nearly 95% of the malaria burden annually.
📝 DRDO Achieves Major Milestone in Scramjet Engine Development[4]
🚀 DRDO’s DRDL (Hyderabad) conducted long-duration Active Cooled Scramjet Subscale Combustor ground testing for more than 1,000 seconds ⇒ In simple words, it successfully tested a part of a hypersonic engine called a scramjet combustor for over 1,000 seconds (earlier it was tested for 120 seconds).
🚀 Hypersonic Cruise Missile: Can fly more than 5 times the speed of sound ⇒ Uses air-breathing engines like scramjets to stay at high speeds for long distances.
🚀 Scramjet engine: Air-breathing jet engine that uses supersonic airflow for combustion and propulsion ⇒ Designed for hypersonic speeds (Mach 5 and above).
📝 India’s inland water transport (IWT) sector[5]
🚀 Achieved a record cargo movement of 145.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) in FY25 ⇒ Nearly 8 times the 18.10 MMT recorded in FY14.
👉🏽 Grown at a CAGR of 20.86% over the last decade ⇒ 9.34% rise over the previous year.
👉🏽 5 bulk commodities, coal, iron ore, iron ore fines, sand, and fly ash, accounted for over 68% of the cargo moved.
🚀 Jalvahak: A cargo promotion scheme launched in 2024 with a Rs. 95.42 crore budget to shift freight from road and rail to waterways ⇒ Provides a 35% reimbursement on operating costs.
🚀 Operational National Waterways increased from 5 in 2014 to 29 today, with the navigable length rising from 2,716 km to 4,894 km.
🚀 The 2025 Budget extended the tonnage tax regime to inland vessels to ease taxation and promote shipping under the Indian Vessels Act, 2021.
🚀 Digital platforms like LADIS, RIS, Car-D, PANI, and MIRS are improving navigation and logistics efficiency.
🚀 Maritime India Vision 2030 and Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 aim for 200 MMT cargo by 2030 and 500 MMT by 2047, respectively.
📝 Miscellaneous [6]
🚀 Lengpui Airport: Mizoram ⇒ 69th airport in India to come under CISF security cover.