India

• 5 kg per person per month foodgrains to be given in May and June to the beneficiaries covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Householders category of the National Food Security Act (NFSA)
• National Panchayati Raj Day celebrated on April 24; marks the passage of Constitution (Seventy-third Amendment) Act, 1992 that became effective from April 24, 1993
• National Panchayat Awards include Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar, Nanaji Deshmukh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar conferred by PM
• PM launches the distribution of e-property cards under the SVAMITVA scheme on National Panchayati Raj Day
• SVAMITVA: Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas
• Indian and French Navy bilateral exercise ‘VARUNA-2021’ to be conducted in the Arabian Sea from April 25 to 27
• A glacier burst near Niti Valley in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand kills 10
• Supreme Court judge Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar dies at 62
• ‘Mukti Bhawan’ and ‘Titli’ actor Lalit Behl passes away due to Covid-19 at 71
• Congress launches its digital media platform ‘INC TV’

Economy & corporate

• Customs duty on Covid vaccine, oxygen, equipment exempted till July-end

World

• Indonesian submarine named ‘KRI Nanggala’, which went missing on April 21, declared sank with all 53 sailors killed
• ASEAN leaders hold emergency summit with Myanmar coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Jakarta
• S. President Joe Biden calls 1915 killings of Armenians by Turkey’s Ottoman forces as genocide
• International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace celebrated by UN on April 24
• World Immunization Week being celebrated from April 24 to 30 by WHO, theme: Vaccines bring us closer
• China’s first Mars rover named Zhurong after a traditional fire god

Every year, the World Malaria Day is celebrated on April 25 by the World Health Organisation and several other international organisations. This year, the World Malaria Day is to be celebrated under the following theme:

World Malaria Day

The World Malaria Day is one of the eleven official Global Public Health campaigns marked by the World Health Organisation The other ten are World AIDS Day, World Hepatitis Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Chagas Disease Day, World Tuberculosis Day, World Patients Safety Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Health Day, and World Antimicrobial Awareness Week.

The World Malaria Day was established by the 60^th session of the World Health Assembly. Earlier it was widely known as the African Malaria Day.

Malaria

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasite. The disease spreads to the humans through the bite of female Anopheles mosquito.

Malaria in India

According to the World Health Organisation, India represents to 3% of the global malaria. India once nearly eliminated Malaria. However, Malaria came back to India in the beginning of twenty first century. In 2009, there were 1.5 million Malarial cases in India. India has set a target of becoming Malaria free country by 2027 and malaria elimination by 2030.

National Strategic Plan for Elimination of Malaria

The plan was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The above target was set under this plan. The plan is designed based on the Global Technical Strategy of Malaria (2016-2030).
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recently announced that, in 2020, 116 Indian districts reported zero malaria cases.

Malaria Elimination

Malaria has been eliminated in Europe, United States, parts of Asia and Latin America. However, the disease is re-emerging in these regions as drug-resistant and insecticide-resistant.