30 August 2022 – Current Affairs

Centre of Excellence for Vegetables

Paper 3 – Agriculture

Why Should You Know?

Center of Excellence for Vegetables has been established in Pune, Maharashtra, which was recently visited by Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

In details –

• Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare visited the Indo-Dutch, Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Vegetables at Baramati, District Pune, Maharashtra and interacted with the farmers.
• Dr. Likhi also visited the Dutch Green house at CoE, KVK Baramati, which aims to maximise the crop production from less resources e.g. water, pesticides, manpower etc, which not only adds value to the entrepreneurs but also increases the quality of the produce being residue free.  The main focus of this green-house is on demonstrating technologies under protected cultivation.
• Dr. Likhi also reviewed the activities of CoE, Baramati during which the Director of the CoE made a detailed presentation.  All the 7 CoEs and 3 private CoEs and Agri Start-Ups working in the region made presentations on innovations and technologies being used by them to cut down the transaction costs and create better market linkages for farmers growing fruits and vegetables.
• During these interactions, Ministry officials, officials of the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research, Directors of all CoEs, 23 National Research Centres for Horticulture of ICAR State Horticulture Directors and other stakeholders were connected through Video Conference.
• Dr. Likhi directed all the stakeholders to ensure that the technological demonstrations being practiced in the 7 CoEs should be widely disseminated in the villages surrounding the CoEs especially to extend its benefits to the small and marginal farmers for practicing profitable agriculture.    

Objective of CoE –

• The main objective of setting of the CoE is to establish a demonstration hub for vegetable production and transfer of technologies to the extension workers and farmers in the region through their training and capacity building.
• Introduction of advanced technologies that are required to increase vegetable production and reduce losses in the supply chain (Field/ PHT/ Storage/ Transportation) are being shown to the farmers and extension workers.
• These techniques include protected cultivation, hydroponics, improved seeds and quality planting material, fertigation, Integrated Nutrient Management (INM), Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), etc.
• The other objectives of the project includes supply of quality planting material of vegetables, demonstration of hi-tech protected cultivation technologies in vegetables crops, efficient use of water & fertigation through atomization, standardizing good agricultural practices to ensure higher yield and enhanced income to the farmers.
• The CoE facilitated the training of various level of officers, NGOs, private entrepreneurs, etc. and paved a way to develop value chain, promote employment generation and market intelligence to maximise income of farmers.     

Technology intervention –

• The major technology intervention under the project includes production of pest & disease free planting materials in hi-forced ventilated poly house, to use Italian media filling cum seeding machine for production of planting material, to use automatic robot in vegetables seedlings production for irrigation & fertigation, demonstration of soil less cultivation, European soil less grow bags, vertical grow bags, exotic crops like bell pepper, cherry tomato, beef tomatoes, leafy exotics & hanging muskmelons, to introduce Dutch agriculture techniques like pollination, trellising, training & pruning, butterfly vent climate control system, sensors, weather system, climate control, fertigation stock solutions and drain water recycling. 
• Capacity building programme including India’s first ToT Programme (Training of Trainers) & Skill Development Training programmes for young entrepreneurs & FPOs, to introduce value chain Management Programme (Market Linkages) for Agriculture Produce commodity.

Skill development –

• This Centre also provides skill development trainings to the needy people to encourage the self employment and creation of technology awareness which attracts many youngster towards agriculture.

Indo-Dutch collaboration –

• A total of 7 Centres of Excellence (CoEs) of Indo-Dutch collaboration have been approved so far in 4 States. 
• Out of which, 2 centres are completed in the State of Maharashtra and 5 CoEs are at various stages of completion.
• Beside these 7 CoEs there are 3 private CoEs also.  These 7 CoEs and 3 private CoEs are operational in the States of Maharashtra, Punjab, Jammu Kashmir, Kerala and Karnataka with specific focus on horticulture crops, fruits, vegetables, potatoes and flowers.

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority

Paper 2 – Health

Why Should You Know?

Recently Dr Mansukh Mandaviya addressed Silver Jubilee Celebrations of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority and launched Integrated Pharmaceutical Database Management System 2.0 and Updated Pharma Sahi Dham App

In details –

• Union Minister of Chemical and Fertilizers, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya addressed the Silver Jubilee Celebrations of National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), here today. Shri Bhagwanth Khuba, Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers and New & Renewable Energy graced the occasion as guest of honour.
• Addressing the event, Dr Mandaviya congratulated NPPA for working more as a facilitator, not merely as a regulator. He highlighted their noteworthy contribution towards ensuring availability and affordability of medicines in the last 25 years.
• A publication titled ‘An overview of Drug Pricing @ NPPA 25 year Odyssey’was also launched at the inaugural session.  The publication chronicles not only the 25 year journey of NPPA but also highlights the evolution of the drug regulatory system in the country with special emphasis on pricing regulation.
• Stakeholders from the pharmaceutical and MedTech devices industry, Central and State Governments, Price Monitoring and Resource Units, Civil Society, patient advocacy groups, Pharmaceutical Research and Academic Institutions, Think-Tanks and media representatives from all over the country were also present on the occasion.
• At the inaugural session, Integrated Pharmaceutical Database Management System 2.0 (IPDMS 2.0) and Pharma Sahi Daam 2.0 App were launched.

IPDMS 2.0 –

• IPDMS 2.0 is an integrated responsive cloud based application developed by NPPA with technical support from Centre for Advance Computing (C-DAC).
• It is envisaged to optimize synergies in operations in order to promote Government’s thrust on ‘Ease of Doing Business’ as it would provide a single window for submissions of various forms as mandated under Drug Price Control Order (DPCO),2013.
• It would also enable paperless functioning of NPPA and facilitate the stakeholders to connect with National Pharma Pricing Regulator from across the country.

Pharma Sahi Daam 2.0 App –

• Pharma Sahi Daam 2.0 App will have updated features like speech recognition; availability in Hindi and English; share button and bookmarking medicines. 
• This version of Pharma Sahi Daam also has facility for launching complaints by consumer through the consumer complaint handling module.
• The App will be available in both iOS and Android versions.

What is National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority?

• The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is a government regulatory agency that controls the prices of pharmaceutical drugs in India.
• National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) was constituted vide Government of India Resolution dated 29th August 1997 as an attached office of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers as an independent Regulator for pricing of drugs and to ensure availability and accessibility of medicines at affordable prices.
• The NPPA regularly publishes lists of medicines and their maximum ceiling prices.

Functions –

• To implement and enforce the provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order in accordance with the powers delegated to it.
• To deal with all legal matters arising out of the decisions of the Authority.
• To monitor the availability of drugs, identify shortages, if any, and take remedial steps.
• To collect/ maintain data on production, exports and imports, market share of individual companies, the profitability of companies etc, for bulk drugs and formulations.
• To undertake and/ or sponsor relevant studies in respect of the pricing of drugs/ pharmaceuticals.
• To recruit/ appoint the officers and other staff members of the Authority, as per rules and procedures laid down by the Government.
• To render advice to the Central Government on changes/ revisions in drug policy.
• To help the Central Government in parliamentary matters relating to the drug pricing.

“Operation Uplabdh”

Paper 3- Economics

Why Should You Know?

Railway Protection Force is taking action against the brokers of railway tickets under “Operation Uplabdh”

In details –

• Catering to a nation with population exceeding 1.3 billion, the passenger transport of Indian Railways faces very high demand of seats and berths. The demand supply gap has widened over the years despite capacity augmentation by Indian Railways. This demand supply gap has led to mushrooming of many touts who use different means to corner reserved seats and then sell them to the needy on premium. Use of illegal software for cornering confirmed railway reservations online had adversely affected the availability of confirmed tickets to the common man. RPF has been undertaking intensive and sustained action in a mission mode under code name “Operation Uplabdh” against persons involved in touting (unauthorized carrying on of business of procuring & supply of railway tickets).
• Recently on the basis of pinpointed digital input supplemented by  Human Intelligence, an RPF team arrested some accused persons from Rajkot, Mumbai, Valsad (Gujarat) and Sultanpur (UP) who were using illegal software in large quantities to selling railways tickets.
• These accused persons were involved in development and sale of these illegal  softwares using social media i.e. Telegram, Whatsapp etc. along with providing fake Virtual Numbers and Fake user IDs of IRCTC. These accused had softwares to create fake IP addresses used to bypass the restriction imposed on customers to obtain limited no of tickets per IP address. They sold disposable mobile numbers and disposable emails too which are used for OTP verification to create fake user IDs of IRCTC.
• In course of legal action against all these accused persons in this case, 1688 tickets valued Rs. 43,42,750/- where journey could not be started have been seized and forfeited. In the past, they had procured and sold tickets worth 28.14 Crores earning huge commission. This shows the extent of generation of black money which could have funded other nefarious activities.
• The inputs revealed by the accused are being examined threadbare by a team to plug the loopholes and take measures to stop such practice. This operation will continue in future.

About Railway Protection Force –

• Railway Protection Force is a security force under the ownership of Indian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Government of India.
• It is established by the Railway Protection Force Act, 1957; enacted by the Indian Parliament for “the better protection and security of railway property and passenger area”.
• It has the power to search, arrest, investigate, and prosecute offenses committed under Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act 1966, The Railways Act, 1989 (amended from time to time).
• However the power of arrests under other penal laws rests in the hands of the Government Railway Police (GRP) of state police.
• The force is under the authority of the Indian Ministry of Railways.

International Driving Permit (IDP)

Paper 2 – International Relations

Why Should You Know?

Receclty Notification issued for greater facilitation of citizens in the issue of International Driving Permit (IDP) across the country.

In details –

• The Government of India has taken an important step for those who drive abroad when they go abroad. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) of the Central Government has standardized the process of issuing International Driving Permits across the country in line with the International Road Traffic Convention of 1949.
• Under this, the International Driving Permit (IDP) to be made in the country will be of the same format, size, pattern and colour.
• In the notification issued by the ministry, it has been said that India is a signatory to the International Road Transport Convention of 1949. Therefore, India is required to issue IDPs as per the terms of this Convention in order to accede to it on a reciprocal basis with other countries.

What is International Driving Permit

• International Driving Permits are issued only to those traveling abroad. Driving license in India is not sufficient to drive in another country.
• Apart from India, an International Driving Permit is required to drive a car, from a bike to any other vehicle in any corner of the world.
• To get it done, it is necessary to have a valid permanent driving license in India along with the citizenship of India.

What was the issues –

• the format, size, pattern, color etc. of the IDPs being issued in different states of the country were different. Due to this many citizens were facing difficulties with their respective IDPs abroad.
• Now through amendment, the format, size, color etc. of IDP have been standardized to give uniformity across India and in line with the Geneva Convention.

QR code facility –

• The notification also said that a provision of QR code has also been made to link the International Driving Permit with the driving license.
• Comparison of vehicle categories has also been incorporated in various conventions and in the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 for the convenience of regulatory authorities. Helpline numbers and emails are also provided.

Rashtriya POSHAN Maah

Paper 2- Health

Why Should You Know?

Under Poshan Abhiyaan, ‘Rashtriya POSHAN Maah’ is celebrated each year in the month of September, lets know about it.

In details –

• Under Poshan Abhiyaan, ‘Rashtriya POSHAN Maah’ is celebrated each year in the month of September with the aim to create awareness about nutrition and healthy food.
•  PM’s overarching scheme for holistic nourishment or Poshan Abhiyaan 2022 is aimed to make India malnutrition free by 2022 by providing adequate nutrition to infants, pregnant lady and lactating mothers, covering all states, districts and towns.
• For several decades, India has faced the challenge of eradicating rampant malnutrition all age groups. Malnutrition can be defined as deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of nutrients and is a problem big enough for India to make it a critical national priority.
• During Poshan Maah, SAM children are identified across all districts and provide them care and nutrition in targeted manner.
• Poshan Abhiyaan is India’s flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, adolescents, pregnant women and lactating mothers. This is done by leveraging technology, a targeted approach and convergence with an aim to turn it into a mass campaign or Jan Andolan.
• Earlier, Government of India approved the centrally sponsored scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN)’ for providing one hot cooked meal in government and government aided schools from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
• The scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Education. Under the scheme, there is provision of hot cooked meal to children of pre-schools or Bal Vatika before class one in primary schools also in addition to the 11.80 crore children of classes I to VIII studying in 11.20 lakh schools.
• The scheme is implemented across the country covering all the eligible children without any discrimination of gender and social class.
• The main objectives of the PM POSHAN scheme, earlier known as Mid-Day Meal Scheme, are to address two of the pressing problems for majority of children in India, like hunger and education by improving the nutritional status of eligible children in schools as well as encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.
• As per the report 2020 of the United Nations Development Programme entitled “Charting pathways out of multidimensional poverty: Achieving the SDGs,” the incidence of multidimensional poverty in India has significantly reduced from 55.1% in 2005 to 27.9% in 2015–2016.
• The government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition and is making serious efforts to address this issue. Government implements Anganwadi Services Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyaan, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana and Scheme for Adolescent Girls under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS) as targeted interventions for children under 6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers and adolescent girls throughout the country.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to reduce malnutrition in a phased manner through a life cycle approach by adopting a synergised and result oriented approach. All these schemes address in one or other aspects related to nutrition and have the potential to improve nutritional outcomes in the country.

Mission Poshan 2.0 –

• Further, Mission Poshan 2.0 seeks to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition.
• Steps have been taken to improve nutritional quality and testing in accredited labs, strengthen delivery and leverage technology under Poshan Tracker to improve governance.
• States/UTs have been advised to promote use of AYUSH systems for prevention of malnutrition and related diseases.
• A programme to support development of Poshan Vatikas at Anganwadi centres to meet dietary diversity gap leveraging traditional knowledge in nutritional practices has also been taken up. Guidelines were issued for transparency and accountability in delivery of supplementary nutrition and to track nutritional outcomes on 13.01.2021.

5G services in India

Paper 3- Infrastructure

Why Should You Know?

Reliance Jio partners with world’s leading technology giants to roll out 5G services in India

In details –

• Reliance Jio has partnered with some of the world’s leading technology giants such as Meta, Google, Microsoft and Intel to roll out 5G services by Diwali in key metro cities of India.
• While Jio partnered Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta (formering Facebook) for immersive technology, it has collaborated with Google to develop ultra-affordable 5G smartphones.
• On Cloud, Jio has partnered Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure to ensure a vibrant ecosystem of cloud-enabled business applications and solutions for its millions of users.
• The company has picked chip-maker Intel for cloud-scale data centres and 5G edge locations, while it has robust relationships with leading global network technology providers like Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and Cisco.
• Jio also forged a collaboration with Qualcomm to develop 5G solutions for India, which can be taken to the rest of the world. Using JioAirFiber, people can do away with all expenses related to buying computer hardware and periodically upgrading it, and opt to use a virtual PC hosted in the cloud – called Jio Cloud PC.
• With no upfront investment or tension of periodical upgrading, a user needs to pay only to the extent used, resulting in a super-affordable way to bring the power of a PC, even multiple PCs, to every Indian home and business.
• Meta and Jio Platforms also announced the launch of the first-ever end-to-end shopping experience on WhatsApp, where consumers can shop from JioMart right within their WhatsApp chat.
• Jio will launch 5G services in four metro cities, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai by Diwali. These will be expanded to other cities and towns in phases rapidly to cover the entire country by December 2023.

World’s lowest fertility rate record

Paper 2 – International Issues

Why Should You Know?

Recently, South Korea has again broken its own record for the world’s lowest fertility rate.

In details –

• South Korea has again broken its own record for the world’s lowest fertility rate. According to the census data released Recently, the fertility rate of this country has come down to 0.81 in 2021.
• Experts predict that the fertility rate will drop further this year. Fertility rates have been declining since the 1970s. The fertility rate at that time was 4.53.
• It declined sharply after the year 2000. The fertility rate in 2018 was less than one percent. After six consecutive years of decline, the fertility rate declined to just 0.81 in 2021. This year it may come down to 0.8.

Population growth in India –

• According to the report of the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) released a few months ago in India, the total fertility rate in the country has come down from 2.2 to 2.0. This shows significant progress in population control measures.
• The total fertility rate (TFR), which is measured as the average number of children per woman, has decreased from 2.2 to 2.0 between NFHS-4 and 5 at the national level.
• There are only five states where fertility rates are higher than the national average. These states are Bihar (2.98), Meghalaya (2.91), Uttar Pradesh (2.35), Jharkhand (2.26) and Manipur (2.17).

About US and Japan –

• The fertility rate in America is 1.66 and in Japan is 1.37. Fertility rate is the average number of children born to a woman during the reproductive year.
• In simple words, the age between which women can become pregnant is called the reproductive year. The reproductive years of the average woman are between 12 and 51 years of age.

What is fertility rate?

• The fertility rate at a given age is the number of children born alive to women of that age during the year as a proportion of the average annual population of women of the same age.

Light Combat Helicopters (LCHs)

Paper 3- Security

Why Should You Know?

The Indian Air Force (IAF) is going to set its first unit of indigenous Light Combat Helicopters (LCHs) in Jodhpur.

In details –

• The Indian Air Force (IAF) is set to formally raise its first unit of indigenous Light Combat Helicopters (LCHs) in Jodhpur in the first week of October coinciding with Air Force Day on October 8.
• Ten LCHs will be inducted in the first batch completing one unit, a defence. The IAF is still working out the total number of LCHs to be acquired, the official stated.
• The IAF operates the older Russian Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, of which one squadron has been phased out following the induction of 22 Boeing AH-64E Apache attack helicopters. The existing Mi-35 squadron is in the process of being sent for overhaul which will extend its life by many years.
• The Army had already raised its first LCH squadron on June 1, 2022 in Bengaluru. As reported by The Hindu earlier, the unit will move to Eastern Command along the Line of Actual Control (LCH) on completion of the raising next year.
• The Army plans to acquire 95 LCHs of which seven units, each having 10 helicopters, are planned to be deployed for combat role in the mountains.
• In March 2022, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had approved procurement of 15 Limited Series Production (LSP) variants of the LCH at the cost of ₹3,887 crore along with infrastructure sanctions worth ₹377 crore. Of the 15 helicopters, 10 are for the IAF and five for the Army.The LCH is designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

• The Defence Ministry had stated earlier that the LCH LSP is an indigenously designed, developed and manufactured state-of-the-art modern combat helicopter containing approximately 45% indigenous content by value which will progressively increase to more than 55% for Series Production Version.
• The LCH is the first dedicated attack helicopter of the Army, which otherwise operates 75 Rudra helicopters, the weaponised variant of the indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter.
• It will start receiving Apache attack helicopters from early 2024 onwards, six of which have been contracted under an estimated $800 million deal from the U.S. in February 2020. It is also in talks with Boeing for the procurement of 11 additional Apache helicopters.

Extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables

Paper 3 – Agriculture

Why Should You Know?

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) — Guwahati has developed an edible material that, coated on vegetables and fruits, substantially extended their shelf-life.

In details –

• A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) — Guwahati has developed an edible material that, coated on vegetables and fruits, substantially extended their shelf-life.
• The material was tested on potato, tomato, green chili, strawberry, Khasi Mandarin, apple, pineapple and kiwifruit and was found to keep these vegetables fresh for nearly two months.
• The team used a mix of an extract of a marine microalga called Dunaliella tertiolecta and polysaccharides to produce it. The microalga is known for its antioxidant properties and has various bioactive compounds such as carotenoids and proteins.
• It is also used to produce algal oil, a non-animal source of omega-3 fatty acid and is considered a good source of biofuel. After the oil is extracted, the residue is usually discarded.
• The researchers used extracts from this residue in formulating their film, in combination with chitosan, which is a carbohydrate. It also has antimicrobial and antifungal properties and can be made into an edible film. 
• The researchers said, “The films were made with varying algal extract contents and their properties were analysed and compared with controls. They displayed superior antioxidant activity, thermal stability, mechanical strength, total phenolic content and water vapour barrier property. They also had excellent UV-Vis light-blocking properties”.
• The researchers also tested the biosafety of these coatings. They tried them on what is called the BHK21 cell line. It is a laboratory standard for the study of various biological processes. The tests showed that the new coating materials were nontoxic and could be safely used as edible food packaging materials.
• The research team consisted of Vimal Katiyar and Vaibhav V Goud of the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Center for Excellence in Sustainable Polymers (CoE-SusPol) at the Institute along with their research scholars Kona Mondal, Tabli Ghosh, Mandavi Goswami, Shikha Sharma and Sonu Kumar.
• The study results have been published in several scientific journals, including the Royal Society of Chemistry Advances and the American Chemical Society’s Food Science and Technology.
• Highlighting the importance of their work, Vimal Katiyar, who led the team, noted, “According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, between 4.6 and 15.9 per cent of fruits and vegetables go waste post-harvest, partly due to poor storage conditions. In fact, post-harvest loss in certain produce items like potato, onion, and tomato could even be as high as 19%, which results in high prices for this highly consumed commodity.”
• The new coatings, he said, can be mass-produced. They are very stable to light, heat, and temperature up to 40oC, edible, and can be safely eaten as part of the product formulation and do not add unfavorable properties to it. They retain texture, colour, appearance, flavour and nutritional value.
• The material can be either directly coated on the vegetables and fruits or made into a vegetable storage pouch. In both cases, the shelf-life of the vegetables can be extended. It is a simple dip coating technique with no significant cost added to the post-harvest processing.

International day against nuclear testing

Paper 2 – International Issues

Why Should You Know?

The International Day against Nuclear Tests is observed on August 29.

In details –

• International Day Against Nuclear Testing is observed every year on 29 August. The day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in its 64th session on 2 December 2009. However, since the first time on July 16, 1945, about 2000 nuclear weapons have been tested.
• The side effects and dangers of nuclear testing to human life were dismissed in the early days, but the magnitude of its destructive nature has been proven time and again in history. Nuclear weapons are unstable and the world can function without it.ples to be observed and followed by SC and HC judges.

History –

• On 2 December 2009, at the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly, resolution 64/35 was adopted unanimously, declaring 29 August as the International Day Against Nuclear Tests.
• The essence of the resolution was that “every effort should be made to end nuclear testing, so as to prevent the disastrous and harmful effects on the lives and health of people” and that “the end of nuclear tests as the principal means of achieving nuclear testing”. One of the goals of a nuclear weapon-free world.
• The day was initiated by the Republic of Kazakhstan, with the same date in 1991 selected as the date of 29 August to align with the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.
• The International Day Against Nuclear Testing was inaugurated in 2010. Every year, massive efforts are made to arrange activities around the world. It covers much more including conferences, seminars, competitions, publications, media broadcasts, lectures. Several sponsors, government-level agencies and civil society organizations campaigned for a complete ban on nuclear testing.

Background –

• In the 1950s, physicians and women’s groups raised awareness of the health effects of atmospheric testing, including the presence of radioisotopes in children’s teeth. The campaign helped lead to the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits testing under water, in the atmosphere and outer space but does not include underground.
• In the 1980s, US and Russian scientists made joint efforts to demonstrate the feasibility of verifying a ban on underground testing.
• Also in the 1980s, American groups held mass protests at the Nevada test site in the US and a powerful anti-testing campaign known as the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement. It originated in Kazakhstan, which was home to the major Soviet test site in Semipalatinsk.
• Well-publicized actions and campaigns were directed at the French test site at Mururoa in the Pacific in the 1980s and again in the 1990s.
• Beginning in 1985, NGOs lobbied in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review process for a commitment to achieve a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). It was first adopted in 1995 in connection with the decision to extend the treaty and was ratified at review conferences from 2000 to 2010.
• Especially since the end of the Cold War, civil society has taken steps for the abolition of nuclear weapons, including the CTBT for NPT review conferences.
• In the 1990s, NGOs and lawmakers began convening a 1991 conference on amending the Partial Test Ban Treaty to broaden it, a process that helped lay the groundwork for CTBT negotiations.
• Non-government researchers develop an understanding of verification techniques.
• Non-governmental research and advocacy groups oversaw the negotiations that led to the adoption of the CTBT in 1996.
• NGOs campaigned to persuade their governments to negotiate, then ratified the CTBT. Some also criticized experimental and supercomputing facilities intended to replace nuclear explosive testing.