The Indian Council of Medical Research has launched the 'Malaria Elimination Research Alliance (MERA) India' - a conglomeration of partners working on malaria control - in order to prioritise, plan and scale up research to eliminate the disease from India by 2030.

Over the past two decades, India has made impressive progress in malaria control. The malaria burden has declined by over 80 per cent, 2.03 million cases in 2000 to 0.39 million in 2018, and malaria deaths by over 90 per cent, 932 deaths in 2000 to 85 in 2018.

This success has provided a strong foundation for the commitment from the leadership of the government of India to eliminate malaria from India by 2030.

National Vector Borne Diseases Control Program (NVBDCP) of India has developed a comprehensive framework to achieve the overarching vision of "Malaria free India by 2030".

NVBDCP's National Strategic Plan clearly recognises the critical role of research to support and guide malaria elimination efforts. "

"The Rainbow Mountains are cretaceous sandstones and siltstones that were deposited in China before the Himalayan Mountains were formed. The sand and silt was deposited with iron and trace minerals that provided it with the key ingredient to form the colors we see today."

"What was once a layered horizontal and flat stratigraphy was disrupted by the Indian Plate colliding into the Eurasian Plate approximately 55 million years ago. Much like when two cars get in a wreck and the bumpers fold and break, a similar process folded what was once flat sandstones into the Rainbow Mountains we see today. This process uplifted mountains and exposed sedimentary rocks that were otherwise hidden well below the surface of the earth. Weathering and erosion removed the overlying layers of continental siliciclastic rocks and exposed underlying formations with different mineralogy and chemistry. This causes the striking variation in colors seen across the Rainbow Mountains."

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160825-an-80-million-year-old-secret

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2016/03/02/rainbow-mountains-china-earths-paint-palette/#219e71524412 "

The plan drew its major inspirations from the Gandhian techniques of constructive works by the community and trusteeship as well as the Sarvodaya concept of AcharyaVinobaBave, the eminent Gandhian constructive worker.

Major ideas of the plan were highly similar to the Gandhian Plan like emphasis on agriculture, agri-based small and cottage industries, self-reliance and almost no dependence on foreign capital and technology, land reforms, self-dependent villages and decentralised participatory form of planning and economic progress, to name the major ones. Some of the acceptable ideas of the plan got their due importance when the Government of India promoted five year plans.

PMRPY has been in operation since August, 2016.

• In this scheme, Government is paying the 8.33% contribution of Employers to the Employees' Pension Scheme (EPS) in respect of new employees (who have joined on or after 1st April 2016) having a new Universal Account Number (UAN), with salary up to Rs. 15,000/- per month.
• The scheme has a dual benefit i.e. on the one hand the employers are incentivized for increasing the employment base of workers in the establishments, and on the other hand a large number of workers will find jobs in such establishments.
• A direct benefit is that these workers will have access to social security benefits of the organized sector.

http://pib.nic.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1526913 ;

https://pmrpy.gov.in ;

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