12 May 2021: PIB Summary & Analysis

May 12th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. International Nurses Day
2. National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage
3. Mucormycosis

1. International Nurses Day

Context:

PM expressed gratitude to the nursing staff on International Nurses Day.

International Nursing Day:

• International Nurses Day is celebrated every year to honour nurses and healthcare workers.
• May 12 is observed as nursing day to honour Florence Nightingale, the English nurse and social reformer who founded the key pillars of modern nursing. Nightingale was born on this day in 1820.
• The theme for this year’s International Nurses Day is “Nurses: A Voice to Lead – A Vision for Future Healthcare.”
• The International Council of Nurses (ICN) celebrated the day for the first time in 1965.

2. National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage

Context:

Cabinet approved PLI scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage.

Background:

• ACCs are the new generation of advanced storage technologies that can store electric energy either as electrochemical or as chemical energy and convert it back to electric energy as and when required.
• Consumer electronics, electric vehicles, advanced electricity grids, solar rooftop, etc. which are major battery consuming sectors are expected to achieve robust growth in the coming years.
• It is expected that the dominant battery technologies will control some of the world’s largest growth sectors.
• While several companies have already started investing in battery packs, the capacities of these facilities are too small when compared to global averages.
• There still is negligible investment in manufacturing, along with value addition, of ACCs in India.
• All the demand of the ACCs is currently being met through imports in India.
• The scheme is expected to reduce import dependency.

About the National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage:

• It is basically a ₹18,100 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for building Tesla-style giga factories to manufacture batteries.
• The plan is to set up 50 giga watt hour (GWh) manufacturing capacity for advance chemistry cell batteries by attracting investments totaling ₹45,000 crore.
  • One GWh (1,000-megawatt hour) of battery capacity is sufficient to power 1 million homes for an hour and around 30,000 electric cars.
• The scheme, coming under the department of heavy industry, may boost India’s green energy credentials.
• It is among the PLI schemes worth ₹1.97 trillion announced by the government last year for 13 sectors. The goal is to create global manufacturing champions in the country and attract firms exploring a China-plus-one strategy for production.
• As part of the scheme, each selected ACC battery storage manufacturer would have to commit to set up an ACC manufacturing facility of minimum 5GWh capacity and ensure a minimum 60% domestic value addition at the project level within five years.
• The incentive will be paid out on the basis of sales, energy efficiency, battery life cycle, and localization levels.
  • The beneficiary firms have to achieve a domestic value addition of at least 25% and make the mandatory investment of ₹225 crore /GWh within 2 years (at the mother unit level) and raise it to 60% domestic value addition within 5 years.

Significance:

• Such battery storages will cater not only to electric vehicles but also to the consumer electronics industry and electricity grids.
• This gains importance given India’s ambitious clean energy targets and the intermittent nature of electricity from clean energy sources such as solar and wind.
• In such a scenario, storage holds the key for providing on-demand electricity from wind and solar projects.

3. Mucormycosis

Context:

Government take steps to ramp up availability of Amphotericin B – to fight Mucormycosis.

What’s in News?

• A sudden increase in demand has been observed in some states for Amphotericin B which is being actively prescribed by physicians to patients suffering from Mucormycosis, a post COVID complication.
• GOI is therefore engaging with the manufacturers to ramp up production of the drug.
• The supply position is expected to improve with extra imports of this drug and increase in its production domestically.

What is Mucormycosis?

• Mucormycosis has been observed in a number of Covid-19 patients recently.
• It is a rare but serious fungal infection.
• The disease, dubbed ‘black fungus’, often manifests in the skin and also affects the lungs and the brain.
• It is caused by a group of moulds known as mucormycetes present naturally in the environment.
• It mainly affects people who are on medication for health problems that reduces their ability to fight environmental pathogens.
• Sinuses or lungs of such individuals get affected after they inhale fungal spores from the air. It can also occur on the skin after a cut, burn, or other type of skin injury.
• Usually, mucormycetes does not pose a major threat to those with a healthy immune system.
• The symptoms of mucormycosis depend on where in the body the fungus is growing.
  • Warning signs include pain and redness around the eyes or nose, with fever, headache, coughing, shortness of breath, bloody vomits, and altered mental status.
  • Infection with mucormycetes should be suspected when there is nasal blockade or congestion, nasal discharge (blackish/bloody).
• While it is treated with antifungals, mucormycosis may eventually require surgery.

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May 12th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here