CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -New Delhi: HIL (India) Limited, a Miniratna PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, said on Tuesday that the company has supplied 20.60 Metric Tonne of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) 75 percent WP to South Africa for their Malaria control programme on July 20.

Detailed explanation-2: -HIL (India) is the sole manufacturer of DDT globally. The company was incorporated in the year 1954 to manufacture and supply DDT to Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for malaria control programme.

Detailed explanation-3: -DDT is used in IRS by spraying indoor surfaces with a coating of DDT. This residual coating prevents malaria transmission as a spatial repellent or contact irritant or by killing mosquitoes (indicating more than one mode of action), effectively preventing or interrupting transmission (Grieco et al.

Detailed explanation-4: -India is the only country still manufacturing DDT, and is the largest consumer.

Detailed explanation-5: -DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) was developed as the first of the modern synthetic insecticides in the 1940s. It was initially used with great effect to combat malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human diseases among both military and civilian populations.