A historical perspective of malaria policy and control in India.

Malaria is a major public health problem in India, with ∼0.18 million cases reported in 2022 and 1,309 million population living at risk of infection. The Indian government has introduced various intervention strategies to reduce and manage the number of outbreaks with proper mechanisms. In this policy paper, we have extensively reviewed these intervention strategies using a quantitative approach. The success of the Urban Malaria Scheme, focusing on the 131 urban regions distributed across the country, along with the Intensified Malaria Control Project implemented in the seven hotspots, has been highlighted. The recently formulated National Framework for Malaria Elimination in India has resulted in declining malaria cases in hotspots like Odisha. However, states like West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Tripura have emerged as new hotspots in recent years. A systematic platform for data dissemination and active public-private partnership will expedite malaria elimination in India.

1H NMR structural signatures of source and atmospheric organic aerosols in India.

Organic aerosols (OA) play significant roles in several atmospheric processes and adversely impact human health. This study examines the key structural units present in water- and methanol-soluble organic carbon (WSOC, MSOC) fraction of OA from emission sources (traffic and biomass cooking) and an urban background location in India. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy was employed to assess the distribution of non-exchangeable proton structural groups of the OAs. Organic carbon, elemental carbon, black carbon, and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) analyses were also conducted. The 1H NMR analysis corroborated that the WSOC and MSOC fractions hold similar 1H structural groups; however, they differ in their relative distribution and absolute concentrations across the ambient locations and source emissions. The relative contribution of the proton structural groups to OA was in the order C-H > H-C-C=> H-C-O > Ar-H. The aliphatic concentration was lower in the morning tunnel entry aerosols when compared to other tunnel aerosols, whereas the unsaturated structures (H-C-C= ) were present in all the tunnel aerosols within a range of 47.2-62.3 µmol/m3. The aromatic groups were the maximum in the firewood aerosols, about 1.4 and 3.7 times higher than the crop residue and the mixed fuel aerosols, respectively. The total functional groups, i.e., the sum of all the observed groups, significantly correlated with C-H (r = 0.96) and WSOC (r = 0.7), suggesting the higher contribution of aliphatic groups in the WSOC fraction. WSOC examined in this study fits well in the established 1H NMR source identification fingerprints of urban aerosols. However, biomass cooking aerosols do not fit the established biomass burning organic aerosols (BBOAs) boundaries, exhibiting a smaller relative contribution of carbon-oxygen double bonds and a less oxidised character than open-field burning. Our results provide essential insights into the nature of urban atmospheric, near-traffic and biomass cooking OAs in India.