Kerala Research Articles

LULC dynamics and application of nature based solution in high erosion prone areas of Malappuram District

Kerala State is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, mainly soil erosion due to changing climatic dynamics in the steep slope. In 2018 and 2019 flood, some districts in Kerala State were affected by significant floods due to extreme and prolonged rainfall, leads to large and small landslides. Malappuram is one of the districts that got affected in 2018 and 2019 flood. Disaster risks are augmented by a critical factor that has been silently rising in the State now, which is change in the land use pattern and practices. Hence, the Land Use and Land Cover Dynamics study was conducted in the selected watersheds (Kakkarathode – Pulikkal and Palathingal) of Malappuram district, and spotted major landslides in the area. The LULC dynamics were carried out in the different time periods like 2013, 2018 and 2020. LISS IV (5.8 m resolution) satellite images were used for the analysis and field visit, to identify the related changes. Accuracy of the classification was evaluated using error matrices and kappa statistics. The overall accuracies for 2013, 2018 and 2020 were 84.93%, 86.21% and 87.5% respectively and the corresponding Kappa values were 0.82, 0.84 and 0.85 which indicates the high accuracy of the classification. The flood has mainly affected Plantation, Paddy and Mixed Plantation which had been decreased during 2018-20 and has resulted in the emergence of more Barren land and Waste Land. LULC helps in identifying the changes in the erosion prone areas. Moreover, erosion hazardous area and its prioritization in applying the soil management and conservation practices can be effectively done using LULC change assessment. Nature based solutions such as planting trees and grasses (like shrubs, vetiver grass etc.), construction of ponds, creation of green walls and assemblage of vegetations can be adopted in the region of high-risk hazardous area depending on the categorized zone.

An Economic Analysis of Cost of Production of Black Pepper in Wayanad District of Kerala in India

The present study was conducted in Wayanad district of Kerala. Totally 100 respondents were randomly selected and interviewed from the district. The data was gathered in the form of prestructured interview schedule. The study revealed that average cost of cultivation of Black Pepper per hectare was incurred Rs 419606 which was found to be Rs 438600, Rs 412826, Rs 407393 per hectare on Marginal, Small and Semi medium farmers respectively. Input- Output ratio related to cost C was (1:1.94) (1:1.85) and (1:1.76) on marginal, small and semi medium farmers respectively. As per the size of farm increases the production cost decreases.

A critique of the policy discourse on Primary Health Care Aardram Mission of Kerala.

In 2017, the State of Kerala in India, launched the 'Aardram' mission for health. One of the aims of the mission was to enhance the Primary Health Care (PHC) provisioning in the state through the Family Health Centre (FHC) initiative. This was envisaged through a Comprehensive PHC approach that prioritized preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative services, and social determinants of health. Given this backdrop, the study aimed to examine the renewed policy commitment towards comprehensive PHC and the extent to which it remains true to the globally accepted ideals of PHC. This was undertaken using a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the policy discourse on PHC. This included examining the policy documents related to FHC and Aardram as well as the narratives of policy-level actors on PHC and innovations for them. Through CDA we examined the discursive representation of PHC and innovations for improving them at the level of local governments in the state. Though the mission envisaged a shift from the influence of market-driven ideas of health, the analysis of the current policy discourse on primary healthcare suggested otherwise. The discourse continues to carry a curative care bias within its ideas of PHC. The disproportionate emphasis on strategies for early detection, treatment and infrastructural improvements meant limited space for dimensions like preventive, protective and promotive, thus digressing from the gatekeeping role of PHC. The subdued emphasis on preventive and promotive dimensions and depoliticization of social determinants of health within a PHC discourse indicates that, in the long run, the mission stands to risk its stated goals of social justice and health equity envisioned in the FHC initiative.

Rickettsia africae and other unclassified Rickettsia species of the spotted fever group in ticks of the Western Ghats, India.

The spotted fever group (SFG) of Rickettsia are zoonotic disease-causing pathogens, commonly transmitted by hard ticks to a wide range of hosts, including humans. Rickettsia conorii is the common SFG recognised in India, whereas most of the infections due to other group species go undifferentiated at the species level. Hence, this study was conducted to screen host-seeking ticks in the Western Ghats region, India, for the DNA of SFG Rickettsia. The ticks were collected from Kerala, Goa, and Maharashtra states of India during a survey conducted between November 2017 and January 2018. In total, 288 tick pools were screened for Rickettsia spp. DNA using pan-Rickettsia real-time PCR, and conventional PCR targeting the gltA, OmpA and 17-kDa protein-coding genes. Nucleotide sequences were subjected to phylogenetic analysis using the NCBI BLAST tool to identify submitted sequences with higher homology. Neighbour-joining trees were constructed using the reference sequences of the GenBank database. Overall, Rickettsia spp. DNA was detected in 27.2% (62/228 pools) of host-seeking ticks across the Western Ghats region, with an estimated minimum infection rate of 0.057. Upon phylogenetic analysis, it was identified that the detected sequences were highly similar (> 99% sequence homology) to R. africae, Candidatus R. laoensis and an un-categorised Rickettsia species, and they were widely carried by Haemaphysalis ticks. The current study is the first report of R. africae and Candidatus R. laoensis in ticks in India. Although the pathogenicity of these species is not well documented, they may pose a potential threat to both animal and the human population in this geographical region.

An Overview of Angiostrongylus cantonensis (Nematoda: Angiostrongylidae), an Emerging Cause of Human Angiostrongylosis on the Indian Subcontinent.

Human angiostrongylosis is an emerging zoonosis caused by the larvae of three species of metastrongyloid nematodes of the genus Angiostrongylus, with Angiostrongylus cantonensis (Chen, 1935) being dominant across the world. Its obligatory heteroxenous life cycle includes rats as definitive hosts, mollusks as intermediate hosts, and amphibians and reptiles as paratenic hosts. In humans, the infection manifests as Angiostrongylus eosinophilic meningitis (AEM) or ocular form. Since there is no comprehensive study on the disease in the Indian subcontinent, our study aims at the growing incidence of angiostrongylosis in humans, alongside its clinical course and possible causes. A systematic literature search revealed 28 reports of 45 human cases from 1966 to 2022; eosinophilic meningitis accounted for 33 cases (75.5%), 12 cases were reported as ocular, 1 case was combined, and 1 case was unspecified. The presumed source of infection was reported in 5 cases only. Importantly, 22 AEM patients reported a history of eating raw monitor lizard (Varanus spp.) tissues in the past. As apex predators, monitor lizards accumulate high numbers of L3 responsible for acute illness in humans. For ocular cases, the source was not identified. Most cases were diagnosed based on nematode findings and clinical pathology (primarily eosinophilia in the cerebrospinal fluid). Only two cases were confirmed to be A. cantonensis, one by immunoblot and the other by q-PCR. Cases of angiostrongylosis have been reported in Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Telangana, and West Bengal. With a population of more than 1.4 billion, India is one of the least studied areas for A. cantonensis. It is likely that many cases remain undetected/unreported. Since most cases have been reported from the state of Kerala, further research may focus on this region. Gastropods, amphibians, and reptiles are commonly consumed in India; however, typical preparation methods involve cooking, which kills the nematode larvae. In addition to studying rodent and mollusk hosts, monitor lizards can be used as effective sentinels. Sequence data are urgently needed to answer the question of the identity of Angiostrongylus-like metastrongylid nematodes isolated from all types of hosts. DNA-based diagnostic methods such as q-PCR and LAMP should be included in clinical diagnosis of suspected cases and in studies of genetic diversity and species identity of nematodes tentatively identified as A. cantonensis.

Prevalence of psychological distress among the caregivers of an endosulfan disaster victims in India: a cross-sectional community-based study

BackgroundPhysical health needs of disaster victims take priority over mental health needs in post-disaster scenario, assessments and interventions for latter needs are done only for a shorter duration. The caregivers of the victims also bore the brunt of the disaster and their mental health needs are seldom examined and addressed. Unable to find any literature examining the mental health needs of caregivers of the endosulfan disaster victims in India, the study was planned with the objectives of assessing the prevalence and predictors of psychological distress, its relation to the level of impact, disability as well as quality of life among the caregivers of the victims of endosulfan disaster in the State of Kerala, India after 20 years.MethodIt was a cross-sectional community-based study among 400 the caregivers of the victims of endosulfan disaster. Demographic details, distress, impact, disability and quality of life were measured using instruments such as Family Schedule, Self-Reporting Questionnaire, Impact of Events Scale, World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 and World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale, respectively.ResultsThe estimated psychological distress among the caregivers of the endosulfan disaster victims was 48.7%. Distressed caregivers were found to have significant higher impact (t = − 12.12, p < 0.001), higher disability (t = − 13.33, p < 0.001), and poorer quality of life (t = 11.64, p < 0.001) than non-distressed caregivers. On logistic regression analysis, the positive predictors of psychological distress among the caregivers of endosulfan victims were female sex, impact and psychological disability while quality of life was a negative predictor.ConclusionsAlmost half of the caregivers of the victims of endosulfan disaster victims reported psychological distress, high level of impact and disability and a poorer quality of life. It calls for periodical mental health needs assessment and a long-term sustainable community based psychosocial care and disaster mental health programme.

A new species of Tremella from India

A new Tremella species was collected and described from Kerala State, India. Morphological features along with molecular data confirmed the novelty of the species. The new species T. poilkavensis is characterised by amber brown to blackish brown basidiocarp, stalked basidia, conidiospores budding off from basidia, growth on ascomata of Biscogniauxia species and presence of host hyphae within the basidiocarp.

Representation of Aged Female Fans in Select Malayalam Films: An Intersectional Feminist Perspective

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsParvathy NParvathy N is an Institute Fellow at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, India.Priyanka TripathiPriyanka Tripathi is an Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, India.Notes1 The 1913 release of Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra heralded the commencement of the Indian film industry, which includes a vast range of regional industries producing films in languages including Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, etc. Often, these industries are known by their sobriquets, such as Bollywood (Hindi), Mollywood (Malayalam), Kollywood (Tamil), Sandalwood (Kannada), and Tollywood (Bengali), etc.2 Racial categorization of women from the “African continent” or the “growing African diaspora” (Macaulay 1996 Macaulay, Delia Jarrett, ed. 1996. Reconstructing Womanhood, Reconstructing Feminism: Writings on Black Women. New York and London: Routledge. [Google Scholar], ix). From the Euro-centric narrative, Black women are marginalized as an ethnic minority/“other.” Crenshaw’s work identified that the discrimination of Black women in the US is an overlap of race as well as gender.3 Beginning in 1928 with J.C. Daniel’s silent film Vigathakumaran (The Lost Child), the Malayalam film industry popularly known by the sobriquet Mollywood is established regional film industry under the umbrella of Indian cinema. The significance and distinction of this regional cinematic industry is in its fervent engagement in themes of “social realism in its representational systems than Hindi and other regional language films” (Nair 2015 Nair, P. K. 2015. “Gender Equations in Malayalam Cinema.” In Women in Malayalam Cinema: Naturalising Gender Hierarchies, edited by Meena Pillai, 40–57. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan Private Limited. [Google Scholar],40; Nair, Ramanathaiyer, and Shoesmith 2000 Nair, Lalitha, Sundar Ramanathaiyer, and Brian Shoesmith. 2000. “Frail Bodies, Fighting Spirit: Images of the Elderly in Malayalam Cinema.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 23 (sup1): 31–42. doi:10.1080/00856400008723397[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 32).4 Popularly known as the “celluloid queen of Malayalam cinema,” Sheela began her cinematic career in the Tamil film Paasam (Affection, 1962) opposite M.G. Ramachandran. From 1962 to 1985, Sheela acted in more than 400 films before taking a break until 2003, when she returned to the silver screen in Sathyan Anthikad’s Manasinakkare. Besides the four Kerala State Awards and the J.C. Daniel Award, Sheela also holds the Guinness record for being paired opposite the same actor (Prem Nazir) (Johnson and Niveditha 2016 Johnson, Seena, and D. Niveditha. 2016. “Female Stardom: An Analysis of the Star Image Construction of Malayalam Actress Sheela.” International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies 2 (9): 1–8. [Google Scholar], 3–4).5 Affectionately referred to as Lalettan (Brother Lal) by Kerala’s (India) cinephile community, Mohanlal has established himself as a “household” name and “trope” via his dynamic depictions, instilling in the “heterogeneous” culture of Kerala’s (India) a culturally “homogenous” identity of Ettan or brother (Pillai 2015 Pillai, Meena, ed. 2015. Women in Malayalam Cinema: Naturalising Gender Hierarchies. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan Private Limited. [Google Scholar], 102).6 Recognized as Malayalam cinema’s Nithyaharitha Nayakan (Evergreen Hero) (V.N 2017), Abdul Khader, who adopted the stage name Prem Nazir, is one of the most influential contributions from Kerala to the oeuvre of Indian cinema. Beginning his career in the 1952 film Marumakal (Daughter-in-Law), Prem Nazir holds the Guinness record for acting opposite the same costar (Sheela, 107 films) (Johnson and Niveditha 2016 Johnson, Seena, and D. Niveditha. 2016. “Female Stardom: An Analysis of the Star Image Construction of Malayalam Actress Sheela.” International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies 2 (9): 1–8. [Google Scholar], 4).

Crisis as Opportunity: The Politics of ‘Seva’ and the Hindu Nationalist Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Kerala, South India

The paper examines how Hindu nationalist social service organizations, specifically the Deseeya Seva Bharathi (DSB), reconfigured the religious conception of ‘Seva’ to advance the project of constructing a Hindu social identity during the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of Kerala. The southern Indian state of Kerala has remained an exception in the story of the rise of the Hindu nationalist movement in contemporary India, which has repeatedly failed to make any considerable political inroads in the state. However, the disastrous economic consequences and livelihood challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic in the state, which was heavily dependent on foreign remittance and service industries, have opened up new spaces of engagement for Hindu nationalists. Drawing on the fieldwork conducted in central Kerala during the pandemic, this paper will elaborate on how the DSB used the crisis moment of the pandemic to reach out to economically and socially disadvantaged communities using the language of ‘Seva’ to build a Hindu social identity, which imbues the influence of majoritarian Hindu nationalist politics. The paper argues that the DSB’s articulation of ‘Seva’ as a distinct and superior form of social service that is ‘self-less’, ‘non-instrumental’ and ‘non-reciprocal’ is significant in understanding the growing appeal of Hindu nationalist social service in the contested political sphere of Kerala, which is marked by competing social provisions by the state as well as other secular and religious groups. The paper notes that the reconfiguration of ‘Seva’ as a continuous religious concept enables Hindu nationalists to attain greater acceptance and legitimacy that even the secular state welfare could not achieve, while also concealing the inherent instrumental nature of its social service towards the construction of a Hindu social identity in the region.

A study on Satisfaction Level of Employees of with Special Reference IT Employee in Kerala

This study aims to explore the satisfaction levels of IT employees in the state of Kerala, India. With the increasing prominence of the IT sector in Kerala and its contribution to the state's economy, understanding the satisfaction levels of employees becomes crucial for organizations. The study focuses on gathering insights into the factors that contribute to employee satisfaction and identifying areas for improvement. Quantitative data was collected through a structured survey questionnaire administered to a sample of IT employees working in various organizations across Kerala. The questionnaire assessed factors such as job satisfaction, work-life balance, career development opportunities, organizational culture, and employee benefits

Genomic characterization, transcriptome analysis, and pathogenicity of the Nipah virus (Indian isolate)

ABSTRACT Nipah virus (NiV) is a high-risk pathogen which can cause fatal infections in humans. The Indian isolate from the 2018 outbreak in the Kerala state of India showed ~ 4% nucleotide and amino acid difference in comparison to the Bangladesh strains of NiV and the substitutions observed were mostly not present in the region of any functional significance except for the phosphoprotein gene. The differential expression of viral genes was observed following infection in Vero (ATCC® CCL−81™) and BHK−21 cells. Intraperitoneal infection in the 10–12-week-old, Syrian hamster model induced dose dependant multisystemic disease characterized by prominent vascular lesions in lungs, brain, kidney and extra vascular lesions in brain and lungs. Congestion, haemorrhages, inflammatory cell infiltration, thrombosis and rarely endothelial syncitial cell formation were seen in the blood vessels. Intranasal infection resulted in respiratory tract infection characterised by pneumonia. The model showed disease characteristics resembling the human NiV infection except that of myocarditis similar to that reported by NiV-Malaysia and NiV-Bangladesh isolates in hamster model. The variation observed in the genome of the Indian isolate at the amino acid levels should be explored further for any functional significance.

Bio-medical waste management practices of personal protective equipments pre and post Covid -19: A cross-sectional study

: Covid-19 pandemic and the influx of polypropylene Personal Protective Equipments have created a new challenge in segregation and disposal of plastics. The general guidelines for disposal and segregation during the pre-covid period has emphasised recycling.Objective Our aim was to find out whether the PPE kits were adequately recycled during the pandemic and whether any toxic fumes were produced while incinerating them, resulting in any environmental hazard.: We collected the data on Bio-medical waste disposed in the entire Kerala state from 2017 to 2022. It was divided into pre-covid and covid-relaxation period. The amount of biomedical waste recycled and incinerated were measured and compared. The amount of new cases and its correlation to recycling and incineration was done. The stack emission data during pre-covid and covid-relaxation period was collected and compared.Our results showed that during the covid-relaxation years there was a significant increase in incineration as compared to the pre-covid years. The incineration was much more when compared to recycling. Fortunately the stack emission didn’t show any toxic fumes and environmental hazards.: We concluded that recycling of PPE was not adequate during covid-19 pandemic. Health care system should take more steps to be compliant with national guidelines. Awareness has to be made to decrease in the use of these disposable materials and shift to more eco-friendly materials or reusable materials.

The politics of conflict and conservation in the state of Kerala, India

The politics of conflict and conservation in the state of Kerala, India

On the Limits of Islamic Cinema: The Politics of Halal Cinema Discourse in Kerala, India

Some of the most crucial debates surrounding Islamic legitimacy and cinema rotate around the question of the permissible ( ḥalāl) and prohibited ( ḥarām) in Islamic law and how these function for Muslim theology and politics. Emerging from these debates, halal cinema has been one of the recent critical interventions in the field of Indian and Islamic cinema. Rather than making cinema Islamic from an ideological position, the new halal experiments with the visual language of cinema without compromising the popular dimensions of its viewership. This article looks at the politics of halal cinema within the context of the state of Kerala in South India and argues that the space of halal cinema shows the aspirations and negotiations of the Muslim community in Kerala. Halal cinema thus becomes an immanent critique of Islamic cinema by destabilizing the dominant practice that connects the relationship between Islam and cinema.

A forgotten famine of ’43? Travancore’s muffled ‘cry of distress’

AbstractMass disease and starvation in the princely state of Travancore during the Second World War claimed some 90,000 lives. However, this episode has never received much prominence, especially when compared to the simultaneous crisis in Bengal. It is, in many ways, forgotten. Instead, Travancore’s wartime food management apparatus appears in some accounts as a success story. How did this happen? Integration into the world economy, the reordering of a rigid social structure, and popular political pressures on an autocratic princely regime created a unique set of conditions that left Travancore vulnerable to food scarcity and conflict during the Second World War. A particularly draconian princely regime that suppressed civil liberties prevented the gravity of the situation from being understood. This culminated in vastly unequal suffering and disease-related deaths. But the story is not merely one of despair. The Indian communists took advantage of war conditions to bring together agricultural and factory labourers and contribute to improving the food situation in this ‘People’s War’, while mainstream nationalists sought to obstruct the war effort and have the British ‘quit’ India. Wartime activities would shape the unique post-colonial politics of what became the state of Kerala in 1956. Intervening at the intersection of the historiographies of food and the princely states, this article adds a regional perspective to the nation-centric social history of the Second World War in South Asia. Hunger was a constitutive experience of this period across various parts of India, but the post-colonial political legacies of war could be regionally distinct.

Narayana Bhattathiri: New Experiment and Styles in Contemporary Malayalam Calligraphy

Calligraphy is an important art form in art world and it has long history. In India have diversity of languages, each languages have it’s own uniqueness in the scripts. Malayalam is a language spoken in Indian state of Kerala. Narayana Battathiri have done notable experiments in Malayalam calligraphy. He is an artist and calligrapher from Kerala. He has been constantly experimenting in the art of Malayalam calligraphy last four decades. He has a major role to raise Malayalam calligraphy into the national international level and also popularizing the art of calligraphy in Kerala. This paper to highlights the different styles, patterns , new innovative experiments from his recent works in Malayalam calligraphy

Pokkali Rice Cultivation: A Review on the Indigenous Rice Cultivation Method in Kerala

Kerala state's rice consumption is predicted to be between 3.5 and 4 million tons per year, but production is just a sixth of this. In order to boost the state's rice production, attention must be paid to traditional rice growing techniques. Thus, there is a need to understand the Pokkali rice cultivation method used in Kerala. The Pokkali style of rice farming in Kerala's acidic, saline soil is a distinctive way of rice cultivation. A native historic salt-tolerant type of rice called Pokkali, with a 120-day growing season, can withstand flooding by growing up to a height of 1.5 meters. Chettivirippu, Vyttila 1, Vyttila 2, Vyttila 3, Vyttila 4 and Vyttila 5 are the other rice varieties cultivated using the Pokkali rice cultivation method. With this technique, a single rice crop is harvested on mounds during the low salinity part of the production cycle (June to mid-October), with prawn aquaculture taking place during the high salinity phase (November to April). Pokkali cultivation only produce 2000 kg of rice per hectare, making it slightly unprofitable. The rice plant residue after harvesting is left to rot in the water which subsequently acts as prawn feed. Prawn farming takes place from November to April. Sluice gates help in prawn culture filtering by maximizing the amount of saline water that enters the field and preventing the prawns from escaping. The two main cultivated prawns species are Penaeus monodon (Tiger prawn) and Penaeus indicus (White prawn). Prawns are typically collected in mid-April, especially two to three days before new full moon days, as tidal activity affects their movement. Prawn excreta serve as a natural fertilizer for rice cultivation; prawns feeding on rice cultivation stubbles help to minimize the occurrence of illness in rice to a minimum. It is an organic rice production approach with less cost than commercial rice farming because chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not used.

Elizabethkingia meningosepticum infections with varied presentations and different antimicrobial susceptibility - A case series.

We report three sporadic infections by Elizabethkingia meningosepticum from Government Medical College Kozhikode in Kerala state, South India over a period of three years. Two cases were commenced in the community in immunocompromised children beyond the newborn period, but both recovered promptly. Another was a hospital-acquired meningitis in a newborn baby who developed neurologic sequelae. In contrast to widespread antimicrobial resistance exhibited by this pathogen, there was good susceptibility to commonly used antimicrobials such as ampicillin, cefotaxime, piperacillin, ciprofloxacin, and vancomycin. Whilst ß lactam antibiotics are found effective in the treatment of Elizabethkingia septicaemia of children, piperacillin-tazobactam, vancomycin combination seems effective empiric choice of antibiotics for neonatal meningitis due to Elizabethkingia; there is a need for guidelines for the management of this infection, especially in neonatal meningitis.

Assessing the Vulnerability of Water Balance to Climate Change at River Basin Scale in Humid Tropics: Implications for a Sustainable Water Future

Sustainability in hydrology aims at maintaining a high likelihood of meeting future water demands without compromising hydrologic, environmental, or physical integrity. Therefore, understanding the local-scale impact of global climate change on hydrology and water balance is crucial. This study focuses on assessing the impact of climate change on water balance components (precipitation, surface runoff, groundwater flow, percolation, etc.) at the river basin scale in a humid tropical region. The Periyar river basin (PRB) in Kerala in India is considered as a case study and the SWAT hydrological model is adopted to obtain the water balance components. Three general circulation models are considered under two shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP 245 and SSP 585) emission scenarios assess the impact of climate change until 2100. For the PRB, the results demonstrate a significant increase in streamflow (&gt;65%) and runoff (&gt;40%) in the mid (2041–2070) and far (2071–2100) future under both the SSP scenarios, indicating a potential vulnerability to future floods. Conversely, in the near future under SSP 585, a decrease in runoff (−15%) and nominal changes in streamflow (−5%) are observed. Spatially, the eastern sub-basins and the west coast of the Periyar river basin are projected to experience higher precipitation events, while the central region faces reduced precipitation and low flow rates. The findings emphasize the need for proactive and sustainable management of water resources, considering irrigation requirements, groundwater discharge, and flood control measures, to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and prevent water stress/surplus situations in specific sub-basins. This study enhances our understanding of climate change impacts on water balance and emphasizes the significance of sustainable water resource management for an effective response. By integrating scientific knowledge into policy and management decisions, we can strive towards a resilient water future within a changing climate.

Spatial Patterns in the Distribution of Hypertension among Men and Women in India and Its Relationship with Health Insurance Coverage.

The present study explores district-level data associated with health insurance coverage (%) and the prevalence of hypertension (mildly, moderately, and severely elevated) observed across men and women as per NFHS 5. Coastal districts in the peninsular region of India and districts in parts of northeastern India have the highest prevalence of elevated blood pressure. Jammu and Kashmir, parts of Gujarat and parts of Rajasthan have a lower prevalence of elevated blood pressure. Intrastate heterogeneity in spatial patterns of elevated blood pressure is mainly seen in central India. The highest burden of elevated blood pressure is in the state of Kerala. Rajasthan is among the states with higher health insurance coverage and a lower prevalence of elevated blood pressure. There is a relatively low positive relationship between health insurance coverage and the prevalence of elevated blood pressure. Health insurance in India generally covers the cost of inpatient care to the exclusion of outpatient care. This might mean that health insurance has limited impact in improving the diagnosis of hypertension. Access to public health centers raises the probability of adults with hypertension receiving treatment with antihypertensives. Access to public health centers has been seen to be especially significant at the poorer end of the economic spectrum. The health and wellness center initiative under Ayushman Bharat will play a crucial role in hypertension control in India.