Prelims Focus 10th March 2026

10/03/2026

30 3 minutes read

HMPV

In News: HMPV is surging across the West Coast of the United States, particularly Northern California cities like San Francisco, Marin, Vallejo, Napa, Novato, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, and Davis. Wastewater SCAN data from early 2026 shows a sharp peak in January, with elevated levels persisting into March despite a typical winter decline. Cases are also rising nationwide, including the Midwest and Northeast, amid overlapping flu and COVID seasons, prompting health alerts from experts and the CDC.

Key Features

Transmission: Spreads via respiratory droplets from coughing/sneezing, close contact, or contaminated surfaces; peaks in winter-spring.
Symptoms: Cough, fever, nasal congestion, shortness of breath in healthy individuals; can worsen to pneumonia, bronchiolitis, croup, asthma attacks, or ear infections.
High-Risk Groups: Young children, elderly, immunocompromised, and those with COPD face severe outcomes; causes over 650,000 global hospitalizations yearly.
Diagnosis and Treatment: Detected via healthcare tests; no vaccine or antiviral—supportive care (hydration, rest) only.
Prevention: Cover coughs, handwash, disinfect surfaces, avoid contact when ill, improve ventilation.

Narcotics Control Bureau

In News: In March 2026, NCB busted Team Kalki after three months of intelligence in New Delhi, seizing consignments from 13 domestic parcels and two from the Netherlands. The operation exposed a network active since January 2025, dispatching over 1,000 parcels nationwide via darknet platforms like Dread and encrypted app Session. This crackdown follows prior efforts like Operation Ketamelon (2025), amid rising online drug sales.

Narcotics Control Bureau Overview:

NCB, established in 1986 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, is India’s nodal anti-drug agency.
It coordinates with state police, customs, CBI, and international bodies like UNODC to curb illicit trafficking, cultivation, and consumption.
Headquartered in New Delhi with zonal units, NCB monitors precursors, investigates inter-state syndicates, and enforces laws on opium, cannabis, and synthetics.

Team Kalki Key Features

Operators: Run by Anurag Thakur and Vikas Rathi, ex-Tihar Jail inmates who met during prior narcotics convictions.
Seizures: 2,338 LSD blotters, 160 MDMA pills (77.5g), 3.6kg liquid MDMA, 73.6g cannabis, 3.6g amphetamines.
Modus Operandi: Sourced from Netherlands, Poland, Germany vendors; used “dead drops” in Delhi, multiple couriers/speed post; payments via cryptocurrencies (USDT, Monero) through mule wallets and cold storage.
Reach: Covered Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka; exploited encrypted channels to evade detection.

SHINE App for Women Employees

In News: The Indian Railways recently released the SHINE application during International Women’s Day on 8 March as a way of improving workplace safety and empowerment.

It is a female employee mobile app to file sexual harassment complaints at work place.
It is aimed at enhancing confidentiality and solving complaints promptly by the Internal Complaints Committee in accordance with the Visakha regulations (1997) and the government directives.
Grievances are available on the Human Resources Management System (HRMS) and Employee Self Service portal.

Calculation of Votes for Rajya Sabha Elections

In News: Assemblies of ten states will be electing 37 MPs to Rajya Sabha on March 16.

Rajya Sabha is limited to 250 members out of which 12 members are nominated due to their special knowledge in literature, science, art or social service. The others are elected.
Members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by the members of the state Assembly by the system of proportional representation by a single, transferable vote, unlike Lok Sabha whose members are directly elected by citizens.
Every MLA is entitled to a vote though the vote is preferential: MLAs rank candidates as 1, 2, 3, 4… and so on in descending order of preference.
- To be elected, a candidate has to have a specific number of votes (quota).
When a candidate has received more votes than the quota, the excess votes are passed to the rest of the candidates according to the second preference.
In case there are seats to fill, the candidate whose votes are the lowest is eliminated and his/her votes transferred to other preferences.

Orunodoi Scheme

In News: The Assam Chief Minister stated that he intended to distribute Rs 9000 each to around 40 lakh beneficiary families under Orunodoi scheme using direct benefit transfer (DBT).

- A new Scheme of Government of Assam is Orunodoi or Arunodoi Scheme, which was introduced in 2020.
- It has the vision of women empowerment, poverty reduction and social-economic inclusion of financially vulnerable state women using long-term financial support on a monthly basis in order that they are guaranteed a minimum cash flow on a monthly basis.

Benefits

- The Orunodoi 3.0 Scheme of the Assam government pays a financial assistance of Rs 1,250 every month to women in the families of low income through Direct Benefit Transfer.
- The amount includes several basic expenditures: Rs 400 for medicine, Rs 200 for a subsidy of 50% of 4 kg of pulses, Rs 80 for a subsidy on fruits and vegetables, Rs 150 for other essential expenditures, Rs 170 for expenditures on COVID-19, and Rs 250 for a subsidy of 50 units of electricity.