Science & Tech Flashcards
CLEANING UP SPACE DEBRIS
As part of the space junk cleanup, a new device named space harpoon that captures junk has been tested successfully. It is part of the RemoveDEBRIS project, a multi-organization European effort to create and test methods of reducing space debris.
The Remove Debris Mission
The Remove Debris mission is led by the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey. UK and co-funded by various other partners from EU.
The Remove Debris satellite platform will showcase four methods for release, capture and deorbit two space debris targets, called DebriSATs:
Net capture: It involves a net that will be deployed at the target CubeSat.
Harpoon Capture: Which will be launched at a target plate made of “representative satellite panel materials”
Vision-based navigation: Using cameras and LiDAR (light detection and ranging), the platform will send data about the debris back to the ground for processing.
De-orbiting process: As it enters Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft will burn up, leaving no debris behind.
The mission will demonstrate key Active Debris Removal (ADR) technologies in orbit, which will have significance for future missions as well.
Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee
It is an international governmental forum for the worldwide coordination of activities related to the issues of man-made and natural debris in space.
It aims to exchange information on space debris research activities between member space agencies, to facilitate opportunities for cooperation in space debris research, to review the progress of ongoing cooperative activities, and to identify debris mitigation options.
ISRO is also a member of this committee.
Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet
DRDO successfully flight tested the second indigenously developed ‘Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR)’ propulsion-based missile system, the first test of which was carried out in May 2018
SFDR is an Indo-Russian R&D project which has been established to develop a long-range air-to-air missile and a surface-to-air missile system in near future. It was started in 2013 to develop the technology and demonstrate it in 5 years.
The Defence Research Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad is the lead agency for the collaborative mission project.
SFDR technology, based on the ramjet propulsion system depends only on its forward motion at supersonic speed to compress intake air and the engine flow-path components have no moving parts.
Unlike solid rocket propellant whose formulation is approximately 20% fuel and 80% oxidizer, the solid ramjet fuel is 100% fuel and obtains oxidizer from air, with the result being approximately four times the specific impulse (the product of thrust and time divided by propellant weight) as compared to solid rocket propellant.
Hence, this air breathing ramjet propulsion technology helps propel the missile at high supersonic speeds (above Mach 2) for engaging targets at long ranges.
Consequently, it has inherent simplicity, reliability, lightweight, and high-speed flight capability not possible with other air-breathing engines
PARAM Shivay
Recently PARAM Shivay, the first super computer designed & built under the National Supercomputing Mission by C-DAC (Center for Development of Advanced Computing) at IIT-BHU was launched.
Top-500 Project
Started in 1993, it ranks the 500 most powerful non-distributed computers in the world.
It publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year.
Currently, China dominates the list with 229 supercomputers, leading the second place (United States) by a record margin of 121.
Since June 2018, the American “Summit” is the world’s most powerful supercomputer, based on the LINPACK benchmarks.
LINPACK benchmark are a measure of a system’s floating point computer power. It measures how far a computer solves a nxn system of linear equations.
India has 4 supercomputers in the Top-500 list of the world’s top 500 supercomputers with Pratyush and Mihir being the fastest supercomputers in India.
Measles
Measles and Rubella are highly contagious viral diseases that are spread by contact with an infected person through coughing and sneezing.
o Measles weakens the immune system and opens the door to secondary health problems, such as pneumonia, blindness, diarrhoea etc. This virus is an exclusive human pathogen and has no animal reservoirs or vectors.
Rubella
Rubella, also known as German Measles, is generally a mild disease but can have serious consequences
for pregnant women and their children as it may cause
congenital rubella syndrome in the foetus
NATIONAL ACTION PLAN FOR VIRAL HEPATITIS CONTROL
Recently, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched National Action Plan for Viral Hepatitis.
The Plan provides a strategic framework, based on which National Viral Hepatitis Control Program was launched in 2018 under National Health Mission.
It is in line with the Government of India’s deep commitment towards elimination of viral hepatitis.
Hepatitis
It is an inflammation of the liver often cause by virus and other infections, toxic substances (e.g. alcohol, certain drugs).
There are 5 main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E.
o Viral hepatitis types B and C can cause chronic hepatitis and are responsible for 96% of overall hepatitis mortality while Hepatitis A and E usually cause acute hepatitis.
o Hepatitis A and E are typically caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water.
o Hepatitis B, C and D usually occur as a result of contact with infected body fluids such as during receiving blood, invasive medical procedures using contaminated equipment, transmission from mother to baby at birth, sexual contact etc.
o There are vaccines to prevent hepatitis A, B and E. However, there is no vaccine for hepatitis C.
o Also, Hepatitis D virus (HDV) infections occur only in those who are infected with Hepatitis B Virus.
The infections can progress to other health complications and liver cancers.
ElectroMagnetic Intelligence Satellite (EMISAT)
EMISAT was jointly developed by ISRO and DRDO, two frontline research agencies of the country. EMISAT will allow India to intercept the radars by detecting the electromagnetic rays from “enemy radar”
The satellite has been placed in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an orbit about 700 km from Earth as the objective is to detect low power radar signals.Such radars are typically used to track by low-altitude air-borne vehicles, including aircraft and drones.
The Ministry of Defence had initiated the development of the satellite under the project titled Kautilya, which was first openly acknowledged in 2013-14.
UNISPACE NANOSATELLITE ASSEMBLY & TRAINING PROGRAMME (UNNATI)
Recently ISRO launched a capacity building programme on Nanosatellite development named UNNATI.
It is an initiative to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations conference on the exploration and peaceful uses of outer space (UNISPACE+50).
• It would provide opportunities to the participating developing countries to strengthen in assembling, integrating and testing of Nanosatellite.
Young Scientist Programme/
YUva VIgyani KAryakram (Yuvika)
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has recently launched Young Scientist Programme for school students.
• It aims to inculcate and nurture space research fervor in young minds
• Under this 1-month program, 3 students from each of the 29 States and 7 UTs will be selected.
• Students mostly from class VIII will be given lectures and access to R&D labs and practical experience of building a small satellite.
• It is conceptualized after the similar Programme run by the American Space Agency NASA.
Eligibility: Students who have just finished 9th standard (in the academic year 2018-19) and waiting to join 10th standard (or those who have started 10th Std just now)
• All the expenses of travelling and boarding will be funded entirely by ISRO.
• Under this, six incubation centres will be established in various parts of the country - North, South, East, West, Centre and North-East, and the first such centre has been established in Agartala in Tripura
Samvad with Students
ISRO recently launched a student outreach programme called Samvad with Students where ISRO chairman meets the students during his outstation visits and address their queries and quench the scientific thrust.
ANUSAT
ANUSAT (Anna University Satellite) is the first satellite built by an Indian University under the overall guidance of ISRO and will demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations
STUDSAT
Student Satellite (STUDSAT) is the first pico-satellite developed in the country by a consortium of seven engineering colleges from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
YOUTHSAT
A joint Indo-Russian stellar and atmospheric satellite mission with the participation of students. to investigate the relationship between solar variability and thermosphere-Ionosphere changes
SRMSat:
A nanosatellite weighing 10.9 kg, developed by SRM University, which attempts to address the problem of Global warming and pollution levels in the atmosphere by monitoring CO2 and water vapour.
Jugnu:
A nanosatellite weighing 3 kg, developed by IIT Kanpur under the guidance of ISRO. The satellite is intended to prove the indigenously developed camera system for imaging the Earth in the near infrared region and test image processing algorithms.
Eat Right India Movement’.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recently organised the Swasth Bharat Yatra, a key element of the ‘Eat Right India Movement’.
It is built on two broad pillars of Eat Healthy and Eat Safe
GAS HYDRATES
Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have experimentally shown that methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) can exist as gas hydrates.
They are formed when a gas such as methane gets trapped in well-defined cages of water molecules forming crystalline solids. It is a solid ice-like form of water that contains gas molecules in its molecular cavities.
• Natural gas hydrates occur on continental margins and shelves worldwide from Polar Regions to the tropics.
• Gas hydrate reservoirs are generally associated with biologically rich cold seep ecosystems at the seafloor. Cold seeps are locations where hydrocarbon-rich fluid seeps up from below the sea floor, often as methane or hydrogen sulfide.
• It is estimated that total amount of carbon in the form of methane hydrates, far exceeds the carbon content in all the fossil fuel reserves put together and hence these are supposed to be the future potential energy resource.
India has the second largest gas hydrate reserves after America. The Krishna-Godavari (KG), Cauvery and Kerala basins alone have 100-130 trillion cubic feet of estimated reserves.
Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi
- The RAN was set up to provide financial assistance to patients, living below poverty line and who are suffering from major life threatening diseases, to receive medical treatment at any of the super speciality Hospitals/Institutes or other Government hospitals.
- The financial assistance to such patients is released in the form of ‘one-time grant’, which is released to the Medical Superintendent of the Hospital in which the treatment has been/is being received.
- It has been set up as society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Which is the first state to release a Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs Policy.
Karnataka
BULLSEQUANA SUPERCOMPUTER
France-based company Atos signed agreement with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) for designing, building and installing BullSequana – the supercomputer in India.
BullSequana will be set up in India under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).
GSAT-11
GSAT-11, the heaviest satellite built by ISRO was launched from French Guiana by Areane 5 Rocket of European Space Agency.
• It weighs around 5855 Kg, double the size of biggest satellite built by ISRO till now. ISRO’s most powerful launcher GSLV-Mk III can launch satellite weighing up to 4000 kg only.
• It is part of ISRO’s new family of high-throughout
communication satellite (HTS) fleet that will drive the country’s Internet Broadband from space to untouched areas. It is built to provide throughput data rate of 16 gbps.
o The broadband domain is currently ruled by underground fiber and covers partial and convenient locations.
• It carries 40 transponders in Ku (32)/ Ka (8) Band. For the First time use of Ka-Band is introduced in India through GSAT-11.
• It will be placed in a circular geo-stationary orbit almost 36,000 Km. away and settle at 74° E in India
Ku vs Ka Band
Ku band ranges between 12-18 GHz while Ka Band ranges from 26.5-40 GHz.
• Ka-band has data transmission rates that are hundreds of times faster.
• Most satellites today use Ku Band Transponders because it is difficult to build hardware and software for Ka Band Transponders.
• Allocation and regulation of electromagnetic spectrum into different frequency bands is done by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Visualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral Atom Sensing-2 (VISIONS-2) Mission
NASA has launched VISIONS-2 Mission.
It is a sounding rocket mission to get a closer look at the how the Earth’s atmosphere is slowly leaking into space.
• The aurora borealis is of keen interest to the VISIONS-2 team as they are fundamental drivers in the process of atmospheric escape.
It is the first of nine sounding rockets launching over the next 14 months as part of the Grand Challenge Initiative - cusp, an international
collaboration to explore the unusual portal between Earth and space.
Aurora Borealis
The auroras are formed when energetic electrons, accelerated in the electric and magnetic fields from sun in near-Earth space, crash into and excite atmospheric gases, which emit bright hues of red, green, and yellow as they relax back to a lower energy state.
• The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres. They are known as ‘Aurora borealis’ in the north and ‘Aurora Australis’ in the south.
Polar Cusps
• At almost any location near the surface of the magnetopause, the Earth’s magnetic field provides a natural barrier to the solar wind particles. However, there are two regions, located above each pole, where solar wind particles have a direct access to the Earth’s ionosphere. These regions are known as the polar cusp.
SOYUZ
Recently, a Soyuz Rocket carrying astronauts from Russia, USA and Canada was successfully launched into orbit since a failed launch in October.
The Soyuz is a Russian spacecraft which carries
people and supplies to and from the space station.
- It has room for three people to ride in it. The spacecraft also brings food and water to the space station.
- It is like a lifeboat. At least one Soyuz is always attached to the space station. If there were an emergency on the space station, the crew could use the Soyuz to leave the space station and return to Earth.
- Currently only this Russian spacecraft carry people to ISS after USA retired its space shuttle in 2011.
International Space Station (ISS)
- ISS is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit.
- Its first component was launched into orbit in 1998, with the first long-term residents arriving in November 2000. The Station is expected to operate till 2030.
- It is the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit and can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth.
- It serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory.
- It is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
- China launched its first experimental space station, Tiangong 1, in September 2011.
Sun-spot Cycle?
Recently, scientists from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research have developed a way of predicting the intensity of activity in the next solar cycle (approximately from 2020 to 2031).
What is Sun-spot Cycle?
• The amount of magnetic flux that rises up to the Sun’s surface varies with time in a cycle called the solar cycle. This cycle lasts 11 years on average. This cycle is referred to as the sunspot cycle.
• They are darker, magnetically strong, cooler areas on the surface of the sun in a region called the photosphere
It will help in understanding of the long-term variations of the Sun and its impact on earth climate which is one of the objectives of India’s first solar probe – ‘Aditya L-1 Mission’
TELEROBOTIC SURGERY
India became the world’s first to successfully perform a telerobotic coronary intervention.
• It is a robotic method of performing heart surgery. With the help of the internet and a robotic tower, a surgeon is able to treat patients from a distance.
• This technology is especially important for high emergency situations of heart attacks and stroke, where ideal treatment must be received within 90 minutes or 24 hours.
National Medical Devices Promotion Council
To give a fillip to the medical device sector, a National Medical Devices Promotion Council will be set up under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
The Council will be headed by Secretary, DIPP. Apart from the concerned departments of Government of India, it will also have representatives from health care industry and quality control institutions
National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority [NPPA]
• It is an independent body under Department of Pharmaceuticals under Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
• Its functions are:
o To fix/revise the controlled bulk drugs prices and formulations.
o To enforce prices and availability of the medicines under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 1995/2013.
o To recover amounts overcharged by manufacturers for the controlled drugs from the consumers.
o To monitor the prices of decontrolled drugs in order to keep them at reasonable levels.
Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO)
• It is the national regulatory body for Indian pharmaceuticals & medical devices under Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
DNA TECHNOLOGY (USE AND APPLICATION) REGULATION BILL
Lok Sabha recently passed DNA Technology (Use
and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019.
• The Bill regulates the use of DNA technology for establishing the identity of persons in respect of criminal matters and civil matters such as parentage disputes, transplantation of human organs etc.
• The bill also provides for: establishment of a DNA Regulatory Board; accreditation of DNA laboratories undertaking DNA testing, analysing, etc.; establishment of the National and Regional DNA Data Banks.
• Written consent by individuals is required to collect DNA samples from them. Consent is not required for offences with punishment of more than seven years of imprisonment or death.
HUMAN MICROBIOME
Indian Human Microbiome Initiative, led by The National Centre for Microbial Resource (NCMR) -National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS) has been put up for approval.
The project will include collection of saliva, stool and skin swabs of 20,000 Indians across various ethnic groups from different geographical regions.
- The collective genome of all micro-organisms contained within the human body, residing inside tissues & bio-fluids is called Human Microbiome. It includes bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists and viruses.
- Most of them have either commensal (coexist without harming humans) or mutualistic (each benefit from the other) relation.
- The composition of microbiome is shaped by factors such as genetics, dietary habits, age, geographic location and ethnicity.
- Human microbiome makes up around 2% of the body mass of the adult. There are 10 times as many outside organisms as there are human cells in human body.
Importance of the Human Microbiome
• Microbial communities play a key role in many aspects of host physiology: o Metabolism of otherwise complex indigestible carbohydrates and fats o Production of essential vitamins o Maintaining immune systems o Acting as a first line of defense against pathogens. o Determines how one responds to a particular drug treatment
Human Microbiome Project (HMP)
• It is a research initiative of US’s National Institute of Health with the mission to generate the resources and expertise needed to characterize the human microbiome and analyze its role in health and disease.
• Launched in 2007, it is focused on identifying and characterizing human microbial fauna and elucidating their roles in health and diseases.
• Some methodologies used in HMP are:
o Metagenomics, a sequence-based approach that allows the genetic material from the complete collection of microbes to be analyzed in their natural
environment without needing to cultivate the microorganisms.
o Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) to provide a “deep” genetic perspective on aspects of a given microbial community, i.e. individual bacterial species.
SALSA
Recently, an international team of scientists began
a research named SALSA (SUBGLACIAL
ANTARCTIC LAKES SCIENTIFIC ACCESS) for study
of microbes and living specimens in a Subglacial
Lake Mercer of Antarctica.
• This project could add to understanding of the
evolution of life in these extreme environments on
earth and other celestial bodies such as habitats
deep inside Mars or on the ice-covered moons of
Jupiter and Saturn.
• A subglacial lake is a body of liquid water located in
between an ice sheet and the continental land
mass. The water remains liquid because the ice
sheet above the water acts as an insulator and
traps geothermal heat from the Earth’s crust.
CRISPR-Cas9
CRISPR-Cas9, which is short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9.
o It was adapted from a naturally occurring genome editing system in bacteria.
o It is faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient than other existing genome editing methods
o CRISPR is the DNA-targeting part of the system which consists of an RNA molecule, or ‘guide’, designed to bind to specific DNA bases through complementary base-pairing.
o Cas9 is the nuclease part that cuts the DNA.
Earth BioGenome Project
It aims to sequence, catalog and characterize he genomes of all of Earth’s eukaryotic biodiversity over a period of ten years.
• It involves projects by various countries:
o US-led project to sequence the genetic code of tens of thousands of vertebrates.
o Chinese project to sequence 10,000 plant genomes.
o The Global Ant Genomes Alliance, which aims to sequence around 200 ant genomes.
o UK participants, led by the Wellcome Sanger Institute, will also sequence the genetic codes of all 66,000 species inhabiting Britain in a national effort called the Darwin Tree of Life.
• The initiative would produce a database of biological information (shared online for free), that provides a platform for scientific research and supports environmental and conservation initiatives.
• The participating institutions would raise their own funding as far as possible. However, the project has the backing of the World Economic Forum.
Genome:
It is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes. In humans, it is contained in all cells that
have a nucleus.
Eukaryotes
• These are organisms whose cells have a nucleus enclosed by membranes.
• These are animals, plants, fungi and protozoa, which encompass all of life except simple microbes (bacteria and
archaea, which are prokaryotes).
HGP-Read:
- This was an international and multi-institutional effort that took 13 years [1990-2003] to produce a blueprint of the human genome.
- The HGP has revealed that there are probably about 20,500 human genes composed of over 3 billion base pairs.
- India did not participate in HGP-read.
HGP-Write:
• This project was launched in 2016 to write or build an artificial human genome from scratch with sophisticated
bioengineering tools.
• Potential applications include growing transplantable human organs, engineering immunity to viruses in cell lines,
engineering cancer resistance into new therapeutic cell lines, and accelerating high-productivity, cost-efficient
vaccine etc.
Genome India Project
- It was launched in 2017 by the Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in collaboration with Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (a national institute of the Department of Biotechnology).
- It seeks to carry out Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) of over 2,000 individuals spanning different ethnic, linguistic and socio-cultural sections of the northeastern states.
- It would help in understanding the genetic origins of the different ethnic groups and also an increased understanding of the genetic disease burden which would help in the development of personalised medicine.
100k GenomeAsia Project
A group of Indian scientists and companies are involved with a 100k GenomeAsia project, led
out of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, to sequence the whole genomes of 100k Asians, including 50,000 Indians.
GAGANYAAN MISSION
Prime Minister in his Independence Day speech
announced that ISRO will be sending its first
human spaceflight mission into the space by 2022.
To send a three-member crew to space for a period of five to seven days. The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400km.
• This will be the first human mission indigenously developed by ISRO.
• It will comprise of a crew module and service module that constitute an orbital module. The crew will do microgravity experiment during the mission.
• ISRO Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) at Bengaluru will be responsible for implementation of GAGANYAAN Project
ISRO has successfully demonstrated some of the technologies required for the mission such as Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-2007), Crew module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment (CARE-2014), GSLV Mk-III (2014), Reusable Launch Vehicle- Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD), Crew Escape System (2018) and Pad Abort Test (2018). • ISRO also recently unveiled a space capsule (crew module) and Space suit prototype. • ISRO has also finalized the layout and design of Environmental Control & Life Support System (ECLSS).
GSAT
• A GSAT is a series of geosynchronous satellite
placed in geosynchronous orbit, with an orbital
period same as the Earth’s rotation period.
• Such a satellite returns to the same position in the
sky after each day.
• A special case of geosynchronous satellite is the
geostationary satellite, which has a geostationary
orbit – a circular orbit directly above the Earth’s
equator.
Sun Synchronous Orbits (or Low Earth Orbit):
These orbits allows a satellite to pass over a section of the Earth at the same time of day. These satellites orbit at an altitude between 700 to 800 km.
Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO)
Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) is an elliptical orbit,
with an apogee (high point) of 35,784 kilometers and
an inclination roughly equal to the latitude of the
launch site, into which a spacecraft is initially placed
before being transferred to a geosynchronous or
geostationary orbit.
HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING
SATELLITE (HYSIS)
PSLV C43 recently launched India’s first Hyperspectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS).
- HysIS is an earth observation satellite built around ISRO’s Mini Satellite-2 (IMS-2) bus.
- It was placed into polar sun synchronous orbit and has mission lifespan of 5 years.
- One micro and 29 nano satellites from eight different countries including USA, Australia and Canada were also launched along Hysis by PSLV- C43.
• HySIS combines the power of digital imaging and spectroscopy to attain both spatial and spectral information from an object.
• This result can be then used to identify, measure and locate different materials and their chemical and physical properties. Every pixel in the image contains a continuous spectrum (in radiance or reflectance) and can be used to characterize the objects in the scene with great precision and detail.
• Hyperspectral images provide much more detailed information about the scene by dividing the spectrum into many more bands than a normal color camera, which only acquires three different spectral channels
corresponding to the visual primary colors red, green and blue.
• It was first tried by ISRO in an experimental satellite in May 2008 and later on Chandrayaan-1 mission for mapping lunar mineral resources.
Application: Hyperspectral remote sensing is used for a range of applications like agriculture, forestry, soil survey, geology, coastal zones, inland water studies,
environmental studies, detection of pollution from industries and the military for surveillance or anti-terror operations.
Hyperspectal imaging vs multi spectral imaging
- The main difference between multispectral and hyperspectral is the number of bands and how narrow the bands are.
- Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) uses continuous and contiguous ranges of wavelengths (e.g. 400 - 1100 nm in steps of 0.1 nm) whilst multispectral imaging (MSI) uses a subset of targeted wavelengths at chosen locations (e.g. 400 - 1100 nm in steps of 20 nm).
- Hyperspectral imagery consists of much narrower bands (10-20 nm). A hyperspectral image could have hundreds or thousands of bands. In general, it comes from an imaging spectrometer.
• The Indian Air Force (IAF) has commissioned the development of a Hyper Spectral Programme for monitoring suspicious moments along the international border and some parts within the country.
GSAT 29
With a lift-off mass of 3423 kg, GSAT 29 is a
multi-beam, multiband communication
satellite of India and is the heaviest satellite
launched from India. It will bridge the digital
divide of users including those in Jammu &
Kashmir and North Eastern regions of India.
PS4 in PSLV C-44
Normally, the last stage of a PSLV rocket after releasing the primary satellite in space becomes dead and categorised as debris. However, in PSLV-C44, the fourth stage (PS4) of the vehicle would be moved to higher circular orbit so as to establish an orbital platform for carrying out experiments.
o Payload: Kalamsat (Nano-satellite), a student payload will be the first to use PS4 as orbital platform. Microsat-R is a military imaging satellite
PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle):
It is designed
mainly to deliver the “earth-observation” or “remotesensing”
satellites with lift-off mass of up to about 1750
Kg to Sun-Synchronous circular polar orbits of 600-900
Km altitude.
• PSLV is a four-staged launch vehicle with
alternating solid and liquid stages.
• PSLV is classified into its various versions like
corealone version (PSLV-CA), PSLV-G or PSLV-XL
variants depending on the number of these
strapon boosters
• PSLV is also used to launch the satellites of lower
lift-off mass of up to about 1400 Kg to the elliptical
Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle):
GSLV is designed mainly to deliver the communication satellites to the highly elliptical (typically 250 x 36000 Km) Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). Two versions of the GSLV:
• GSLV Mk-II: is a three stage vehicle with four liquid strap-ons. First stage using solid rocket motor, second stage using Liquid fuel and Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) forms the third stage of GSLV Mk II. has the capability to launch satellites of liftoff mass of up to 2,500 kg to the GTO and satellites of up to 5,000 kg lift-off mass to the LEO (low earth orbit).
• GSLV MK-III: It is a three stage vehicle with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage engine (C25) with two solid fuel strap-on engines in the first stage, a liquid propellant core as second stage. It has been designed to carry heavier communication satellites weighing up to 4000 kg into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit or satellites weighing about 10,000 kg to a Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
o The indigenous cryogenic C25 engine helps to keep fuel loads on the rocket relatively low. India is among six nations — apart from the US, Russia, France, Japan and China — to possess cryogenic engine technology.
Parker Solar Probe
It is first to fly direct into the Sun’s atmosphere known as corona. The Sun’s unstable corona produces:
solar winds, flares, magnetic and plasma explosions.
• It will take measurements of the Sun’s electric fields and waves.
NASA’s Mission
InSight Mars Lander
• First spacecraft designed to explore the deep interior of the red planet.
• The landing site is Elysium Planitia, close to Mars’ equator.
NASA’s Mission
Opportunity Rover
• It has been recently declared as complete. It confirmed that water once flowed on the Mars.
Cassini-Huygens
- It was launched through collaboration between NASA, ESA and the Italian space agency to study Saturn and its system of rings and moons (Saturn’s largest moon is Titan)
- It was first spacecraft to orbit Saturn.
Voyager 1 and 2
• Voyager 2 has become the second human-made object in history to enter the interstellar space after
crossing the heliopause (region where the tenuous, hot solar wind meets the cold, dense interstellar medium).
• Voyager 1 was the first spacecraft to have entered interstellar space
New Horizons probe
• It recently completed the flyby of the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule and set the record for
the most distant object ever visited by a spacecraft.
• It is the first mission to the Pluto System and the Kuiper belt.
• The farthest ever trajectory correction maneuvers (TCM) or course correction has been performed on this spacecraft
Dawn mission
• Only mission ever to orbit two extraterrestrial targets - giant asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres.
• Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is only dwarf planet located in the inner circle of the solar system, rest all are located
on the outer edges.
OSIRIS-REx
- It is a space probe launched for a near earth asteroid Bennu in 2016.
- These first images of Bennu present a remarkable similarity with the ones recently obtained by the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission (Japanese mission) of another primitive asteroid, Ryugu.
Lucy Mission
• To be launched in 2021, it will be the first space mission to study the Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids and
will fly by six Trojans and one Main Belt asteroid.
• Trojan Asteroids are any one of a number of asteroids that occupy a stable Lagrangian point in a planet’s orbit around the Sun.
Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission
• It aims to learn more about the generation of cosmic rays in the heliosphere. It is to be launched by 2024.
Kepler Mission
- Kepler is a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars. It was recently retired.
- The Kepler telescope detects the presence of planets by registering minuscule drops in a star’s brightness that occurs when a planet crosses in front of it, a movement known as a transit.
- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is its successor.
Chandra Xray Observatory
It entered protective “safe mode” due to a malfunction. It is one of NASA’s original “Great Observatories” projects along with Hubble, the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Hubble Space Telescope
It is a joint venture between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) — was launched in its orbit 552 km above Earth.
• It is the first major optical telescope to be placed in space.
• It has the ability to see in multiple wavelengths — near infrared, visible light and near ultraviolet.
James Webb Space
- It is a joint project of the NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
- It will be the successor of Hubble Space Telescope and 100 times powerful than it.
Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe,
Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx)
- It is space telescope scheduled to be launched in 2023. It is part of NASA’s Explorer Program and is planned as a two-year mission with a twofold aim: to understand the evolution of the universe and how common the ingredients for life are in our galaxy.
- It will survey the entire sky every 6 months from low-Earth polar orbit, in optical as well as near-infrared light, creating the first spectral all-sky survey at infrared wavelengths.
- The mission will create a map of the entire sky in 96 different colour bands, far exceeding the colour resolution of previous all sky maps.
ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite)-2
• It is a recently launched benchmark Earth Observing
System mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics.
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On
GRACE-FO
- It’s a joint mission by NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) to map Earth’s gravitational fields and study changes Earth’s gravitational pull due to moving water.
- It is a successor to the original GRACE Mission (2002-2017). It was the first mission to measure the amount of ice being lost from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
Visualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral Atom Sensing-2 (VISIONS-2) Mission
• It is a sounding rocket mission to get a closer look at how the Earth’s atmosphere is slowly leaking into space.
o A sounding or probe rocket makes brief, targeted flights into space before falling back to Earth just a few minutes later and is designed to probe atmospheric conditions and structure at heights (80–160 km).
• The aurora borealis is of keen interest to the VISIONS-2 team as they are fundamental drivers in the
process of atmospheric escape.
o The auroras are formed when energetic electrons,
accelerated in the electric and magnetic fields from sun in near-Earth space, crash into and excite atmospheric gases, which emit bright hues of red, green, and yellow as they relax back to a lower energy state.
o The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the
northern and southern hemispheres. They are known
as ‘Aurora borealis’ in the north and ‘Aurora Australis’ in the south.
• It is the first of nine sounding rockets to be launched over the next 14 months as part of the Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI), an international collaboration to explore the unusual portal between Earth and space.
BepiColombo Mission
• It is Europe’s first mission to Mercury, set off in 2018 and reach there in 2025.
• It is a joint mission between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
• Mercury is the smallest planet in our Solar System.
Till now only NASA’s Mariner 10 and US Space Agency’s Messenger have flown past the planet.
Aeolus satellite
• It’s a European Space Agency’s Earth Explorer satellite and world’s first space mission to map the
Earth’s wind on a global scale.
• It is part of the ESA’s Living Planet Programme which
include various missions like:
o Gravity field and steadystate Ocean Circulation
Explorer (GOCE)
o Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity
o CryoSat mission
o Swarm magnetic field mission
European Southern Observatory
• European Southern Observatory (ESO) recently sighted hyperion the largest ever galaxy protosupercluster sighted till date.
• ESO is an intergovernmental organisation with 16
Member States along with the host state of Chile and
with Australia as a strategic partner
Chang’e-4
spacecraft
• It is part of the second phase of China’s lunar programme.
• It is the first mission to land on the far side of the Moon. It landed at the South Pole-Aitken Basin.
• Far side is the hemisphere of the Moon that always faces away from Earth.
• From Earth, only 59% of the moon is visible over a period of time due to:
o Tidal locking: Moon takes nearly same time i.e. 27 days, to come one orbit around the Earth and also to rotate once on its own axis. Thus, same side of the moon is visible from Earth while the farther remains
dark.
o Lunar vibrations: due to tidal locking, ideally 50%
of the moon should be visible but we see 59% because of north-south rocking and east-west wobbling of moon – called as lunar vibrations.
• There are more impact craters on the far side of the
Moon than the near side as near side has much thinner
crust which has allowed volcanoes to erupt and fill in
ancient large basins.
• The Earth partially shields the near side of the Moon
from incoming asteroids.
Tiangong
• Tiangong (‘Heavenly Palace’) is a space station program of China to place the Chinese large modular space station in Low Earth orbit by 2022.
• International Space Station (ISS) is expected to be decommissioned in 2024 and CSS will fill the vacuum in
Space Station based research.
o ISS is a habitable artificial satellite in low earth orbit operational since 1998. It is collaborative effort between space agencies of the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan.
Ibuki-2/ Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite-2
• Recently Japan launched greenhouse gas observation satellite Ibuki-2.
• Japan also launched the United Arab Emirates’ first
locally made satellite, the KhalifaSat Earth observation
satellite.
Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, or OCO-2
By NASA, is designed to monitor carbon dioxide in
our planet’s atmosphere
Geostationary Carbon Observatory (GeoCarb)
will build on the success of OCO-2 by NASA, will map
concentrations of key carbon gases above the Americas from geostationary orbit.
Gaofen 5
environmental monitoring satellite by China, to survey global land and water resources, air pollutants, greenhouse gases and other environmental
parameters.
Venus Satellite
It’s Israel first environmental research satellite, jointly
built by Israel and France
X-Calibur
• Recently, Washington University launched telescope
named X-Calibur, from Antarctica.
• It intends to measure the polarization of X-rays arriving
from distant neutron stars, black holes, etc.
• The observations will also test two of the most important theories in modern physics under extreme conditions: quantum electrodynamics and general relativity.
Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA)
Mission
• It a proposed first-ever mission that will deflect a
near-Earth asteroid to protect the planet.
• It is an international collaboration among the
European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and others.
• AIDA involves two independent spacecraft: NASA’s
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission
and ESA’s Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM).
• Its target is the binary near- Earth asteroid Didymos.
• NASA has also designed a spacecraft named
HAMMER (Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation
Mission for Emergency Response), which could
deflect a asteroids.
Asteroids
Asteroids are small bodies of rocks which revolve
around the sun. The Asteroid belt in our Solar System
is found between the Mars and Jupiter.
Meteoroids
Meteoroids – When asteroids smash into each other,
small fragments break off. These fragments are
called Meteoroids.
Meteors
Meteors – When these meteoroids come closer to
Earth and enter its atmosphere they vaporize with a streak of light in the sky (meteor shower). They are
then called Meteors or shooting stars.
Meteorites
When the meteors do not vaporise
completely after entering the Earth’s atmosphere,
they are called Meteorites.
Comet
A chunk of ice and rock originating from the
outer solar system, often accompanied by a coma
and tail.
2015 BZ509
Scientist found an asteroid known as 2015 BZ509 which is supposed to be the first interstellar body to stay in our solar system.
• Its orbit is “retrograde,” i.e. 2015 BZ509 moves around the sun in the opposite direction (clockwise if seen from Sun’s imaginary North Pole) of Jupiter, Earth and most other bodies in the solar system.
• The orbit of the asteroid almost coincides with the
Jupiter.
INDIA-BASED NEUTRINO
OBSERVATORY
The project includes:
o Construction of an underground laboratory at Pottipuram in Bodi West hills of Theni District of Tamil Nadu.
o Construction of an Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector for studying neutrinos, which will include the world’s largest magnet.
o Setting up of National Centre for High Energy Physics at Madurai, for the operation and maintenance of the underground laboratory, human resource development and detector R&D along with its applications.
• It is located within 5 km of Madhikettan Shola National Park in Idukki district of Kerala and hence also requires specific approval by the National Board for Wild Life.
Neutrinos
• The neutrinos are second most abound particles in
the universe.
• They interact very little with anything and pass through everything that’s why it’s hard to detect them.
• They carry no electrical charge and nearly massless.
• It occurs in 3 different types/flavors, separated based on mass (electron-neutrino, muon-neutrino,
tau-neutrino).
• It is produced in the core of the sun & millions of them roam around in the solar system.
• Neutrinos can also be made artificially. They are produced in radioactive decays and in nuclear reactors.
Anti-neutrinos
They are antiparticles of neutrinos and are
produced in the negative beta decay.
• Antineutrinos (as neutrinos) are very penetrating
subatomic particles, capable of passing through
Earth without any interaction.
• Neutrinos and antineutrinos belong to the family
of leptons, which means they do not interact via
strong nuclear force.
IceCube observatory
The IceCube observatory at the South Pole has discovered that a “blazar”, a galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its centre, also produces
neutrinos.
• It is a cubic kilometre in size and uses deep antarctic ice as a target for the neutrinos.
• Neutrinos can produce a charged particle when they occasionally do interact with the fundamental particles that make up ice.
Other neutrino study projects
• LAGUNA (Large Apparatus studying Grand Unification & Neutrino Astrophysics) in Europe.
• Hyper Kamiokande Detector at Kamioka Observatory in Hida (Japan).
• DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino) project in South Dakota (US).
• China proposed Neutrino Observatory in Jianmeng
Province
COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION (CMBR)
Scientists from the Raman Research Institute in Bengaluru have conducted an experiment for detection of Cosmic Microwave background radiation in Timbaktu in Andhra Pradesh.
• Timbaktu was chosen as it is described as Radio Quiet — an area where there is virtually no interference from signals produced by modern technology like mobile, TV etc. which makes it most suitable place to detect even faint electromagnetic signals from the sky.
- It is an all-pervasive, but weak, electromagnetic radiation from the early universe, about 3,80,000 years after the Big Bang when matter was still to be formed. Most cosmologists consider this radiation to be the best evidence for the hot big bang model of the universe.
- This radiation does not come from any of the objects that we see in the universe, like stars or galaxies but from a time when matter and radiation were in thermodynamic equilibrium.
- The spectrum produced by CMBR is very smooth. It does, however, contain small wiggles, or deformities, in its shape.
- Each of these wiggles has valuable encoded information about specific events that took place as the first stars were born.
INDIA’S FIRST ROBOTIC
TELESCOPE
Recently, India’s first robotic telescope – Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen (GROWTH)-India, began its operation at the Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) in Hanle in Ladakh.
• It is a joint project of Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB).
• It is fully funded by the Science and Engineering Board (SERB) of the Department of Science and Technology, under the PIRE project, administered by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum.
• It is a 70cm telescope and the primary objective of the project is the time domain astronomy.
• It is mainly an imaging telescope.
• The first targets for the telescope were chosen from the Messier catalogue (a catalogue of nearby, bright astronomical sources accessible from the northern
hemisphere).
GROWTH Initiative
- It is a part of multi-country collaborative initiative to observe transient events in the universe.
- The initiative focus on three scientific themes in the field of time-domain astronomy –cosmic explosions (supernova), small near earth asteroids and the electromagnetic identification of gravitational wave sources.
- It is a fully robotic optical research telescope which has been designed to capture cosmic events occurring in timescales much shorter than light years like years, days and even hours.
- Partners: Universities and research institutes from the US, the UK, Japan, India, Germany, Taiwan and Israel are part of the initiative.
What are transient events?
- These are short lived burst of energy in a system caused by a sudden change of state.
- The events are caused due to several factors such as relatively benign flares of stars, accretion of matter on compact objects, stellar merger and explosions.
- All these result in a flash in the sky for a period and then slowly fade away.
- Through these electromagnetic signatures, astronomers try to gain an insight into the cosmic objects as well as physical processes that govern their evolution.
What is Time Domain Astronomy?
It is the study of how astronomical objects change with time. Changes may be due to movement or physical changes in the object itself. Examples include pulsar variability, and the variability of accreting black holes, variable stars, and the Sun.
Himalayan Chandra Telescope
It is a 2-m Telescope at IAO, Hanule, ladakh.
• It is remotely operated using dedicated satellite
communication link from the Centre of Research &
Education in Science and Technology.
EXOPLANET DISCOVERED BY
INDIA
Recently Indian scientists discovered a sub-Saturn
or super-Neptune sized exoplanet.
The discovery was made by measuring the mass of the planet using the indigenously designed PARAS (PRL Advance Radialvelocity Abu-Sky Search) spectrograph
integrated with a 1.2m telescope at Gurushikar Observatory in Mount Abu.
• The name of the host star is EPIC 211945201 or
K2-236 and the planet will be known as EPIC
211945201b or K2-236b
PARTICLE DECAY
Recently, Scientist at CERN observed the Higgs
boson decaying to fundamental particles known
as bottom quarks.
Higgs bosons decay into pairs of the following particles in the following percentages: bottom quarks (58 percent), W bosons (21 percent), Z bosons (6 percent), tau leptons (2.6 percent) and photons (0.2 percent).
It validates the theory of Standard Physics which states that about 60% of the time a Higgs boson will decay to a pair of bottom quarks.
o Standard Model: It’s built upon the idea that the Higgs field endows quarks and other fundamental particles with mass.
o Standard Model doesn’t include dark matter that makes up 85 percent of mass in the universe—or a description of how gravity works at the quantum level.
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan’
PMGDISHA
- It was launched in 2017 to make 6 crore rural households digitally literate by March 2019.
- It is expected to be one of the largest Digital Literacy Programmes in the world.
- To ensure equitable geographical reach, each of the 250,000 Gram Panchayats would be expected to register an average of 200-300 candidates.
DIGITAL VILLAGE PROGRAMME
Recently, it has been decided to expand Common Service Centres (CSC) to 2.50 lakh gram panchayats.
- The CSC model has adopted six villages in the country in the pilot phase to be developed as Digital Villages.
- DigiGaon or Digital Village is conceptualized as a connected place in a rural and remote part of the country where citizens can avail various e-Services of the Central Government, state Governments and private players.
The digital villages have been equipped with solar lighting facility in their community center, LED assembly unit, sanitary napkin unit (with active participation on Asha and Anganwadi workers) and Wi-fi choupal.
DIGITAL NORTH-EAST VISION 2022
- Launched under the Digital India programme it will be coordinated by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and will be implemented by various central government ministries and governments of north eastern states,
- The document identifies eight digital thrust areas -digital infrastructure, digital services, digital empowerment, promotion of electronics manufacturing, promotion of IT and IT enabled services including BPOs, digital payments, innovation & startups, and cyber security
Shakti Microprocessor
o It’s India’s first microprocessor developed by IIT Madras.
o Shakti is an open-source initiative by the Reconfigurable Intelligent Systems Engineering (RISE) laboratory at IIT Madras with funding by Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
o Earlier, an initial batch of 300 chips named RISECREEK was fabricated free at Intel’s facility at USA to run on the Linux System. But now fabrication also in the country has made the microprocessor completely indigenous.
o The Shakti team is also almost ready with ‘Parashakti’ which is an advanced microprocessor for super computers. It can be used in desktops and if 32 such
microprocessors are attached together then it could be used in supercomputer.
GravityRAT
Maharashtra Cybercrime department has reported the malware “GravityRAT”.
The ‘RAT’ in the name stands for Remote Access Trojan, which is a program capable of being controlled remotely and thus difficult to trace.
• It was first detected by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in 2017.
• Malware, or malicious software, is any program or file that is harmful to a computer user. It includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses and spyware.
CERT-In
It is the national nodal agency under Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
for responding to computer security incidents as
and when they occur, operational since January
2004.
Bot:
Bots are software programs created to automatically perform specific operations. While some bots are created for relatively harmless purposes (video gaming, internet auctions, online contests, etc), it is becoming increasingly common to see bots being used maliciously.
Trojan Horse
A Trojan horse, is a type of malware
that disguises itself as a normal file or program to
trick users into downloading and installing malware. A Trojan can give a malicious party
remote access to an infected computer.
Virus:
A virus is a form of malware that is capable
of copying itself and spreading to other
computers. Viruses can be used to steal
information, harm host computers and networks,
create botnets, steal money, render
advertisements, and more.
Worm:
Computer worms are among the most
common types of malware. They spread over
computer networks by exploiting operating
system vulnerabilities. Worms typically cause harm
to their host networks by consuming bandwidth
and overloading web servers. Worms often spread
by sending mass emails with infected attachments
to users’ contacts.
REPURPOSE USED COOKING OIL
RUCO
Recently, FSSAI launched Repurpose Used cooking Oil (RUCO) initiative.
Aim: To enable collection and conversion of
used cooking oil to bio-diesel
FSSAI is working in partnership with Biodiesel
Association of India (BDAI) and the food industry
to ensure effective compliance of UCO standards.
• FSSAI is also implementing a ‘Triple E strategy’ -
Education, Enforcement and Ecosystem to divert
UCO from the food value chain and curb current
illegal practices.
Trans-Fat
World Health Organization has urged developing nations to eliminate man-made trans fatty acids from their food supplies.
Also known as Trans Fatty Acids (TFA), they are of 2 types
o Natural Trans-Fat- Occur naturally in the dairy and some meat products.
o Artificial Trans-Fat- They are created when the oil goes through hydrogenation, which involves adding hydrogen to the liquid oil to make it more solid.
• They help to increase the shelf life of oils and foods and stabilise their flavours.
• The current permitted level of trans fat is 5 per cent (by weight) in India. FSSAI has further proposed to limit the maximum amount of trans fat in vegetable oils,
vegetable fat and hydrogenated vegetable oil to 2 per cent to make India trans-fat free by 2022, a year ahead of the global target by the WHO for complete elimination of trans fat.
“REPLACE” by WHO
WHO has released a step by step guide for the
industry to eliminate trans fats from the food by
2023.
• The guide, called REPLACE, has six actions, which
include
o Review of dietary sources of trans fats,
o Promoting replacement with healthier fats,
o Legislation and Setting up a regulatory
framework,
o Assessing and monitoring trans fats content in
food,
o Creating awareness and
o Enforcing regulation.
Denmark was the first country to restrict industrially-produced trans fats in food and it has witnessed a sharp decline in deaths due to cardiovascular diseases.
Heart Attack Rewind
It’s a mass media campaign by FSSAI, calling for the elimination of industrially produced trans fat in the food supply.
Drug regime in India
• Drugs are regulated by the Drugs and Cosmetics
Act, 1940 and Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, 1945.
• Central Drugs Standard Control Organization
(CDSCO), under the MoHFW, is the authority that
approves new drugs for manufacture and import.
• State Drug Authorities are the licensing authorities
for marketing drugs.
• Drugs Technical Advisory Body (DTAB): It is the
highest statutory decision-making body under the
Union Health ministry on technical matters related
to drugs. It is constituted as per the Drugs and
Cosmetics Act, 1940.
National Medical Devices Promotion Council
National Medical Devices Promotion Council will be set up under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
- The Council will be headed by Secretary, DPIIT and will have representatives from concerned departments, health care industry and quality control institutions.
- It will identify redundant processes and render technical assistance to the agencies and departments concerned to simplify the approval processes involved in medical device industry.
Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC)
• It is an autonomous institution of the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare.
• It is created to set standards of drugs in the
country.
• It publishes official documents for improving
Quality of Medicines by way of adding new and
updating existing articles in the form of Indian
Pharmacopoeia (IP).
• It also promotes rational use of generic medicines
by publishing National Formulary of India.
Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP)
• It contains a collection of authoritative procedures
of analysis and specifications for Drugs.
• It has got legal status under the Second
Schedule of the Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940.
NIPAH VIRUS
Nipah virus was first identified in Kampung
Sungai Nipah, Malaysia in 1998.
• The first outbreak in India was reported from
Siliguri, West Bengal in 2001.
• The natural host of the virus is the fruit bat
but it can also infect pigs or any domesticated
animals.
• The virus is present in bat urine, faeces, saliva,
and birthing fluids which then transmits it to
Humans climbing trees or drinking raw palm
sap covered in it.
• Transmission of Nipah virus also takes place
through direct contact with other NiV-infected
people.
Zika virus
First identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys, Zika was detected in humans five years later. Sporadic cases have been reported throughout the world since the 1960s, but the first outbreak happened in 2007 in the Island of Yap in the Pacific.
• In 2015, a major outbreak in Brazil led to the revelation that Zika can be associated with microcephaly and Guillan Barre syndrome.
transmitted by same mosquito as dengue and also, sexually.
New Influenza Research Programme
Recently, Indian and European Union (EU) collaborated
for new influenza research programme to develop Next
Generation Influenza Vaccine.
The programme will get fund of EUR 15 million
under EU funding programme for research and
innovation called ‘Horizon 2020’.
Horizon 2020
It is the biggest EU Research and Innovation
programme with nearly €80 billion of funding
available over 7 years (2014 to 2020).
• It is helping to achieve research and innovation on
excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling
societal challenges.
Triple-Billion Goals
It is associated with WHO General Programme of Work 2019-2023 linked to SGDs health goals. This stressed the need of:
✓ 1 billion more people are benefiting from Universal Health Coverage.
✓ 1 billion more people are better protected from health emergencies.
✓ 1 billion more people are enjoying better health and well-being.
Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB):
It is resistant to at least four of the core anti-TB drugs. It involves multidrug-resistance (MDR-TB), in addition to resistance to any of the fluoroquinolones (such as levofloxacin or moxifloxacin) and to at least one of the three injectable second-line drugs (amikacin, capreomycin or kanamycin).
WHO- End TB Strategy
A world free of TB with zero deaths, disease and suffering due to TB. It has three high-level, overarching indicators and related targets:
o 95% reduction by 2035 in number of TB deaths compared with 2015.
o 90% reduction by 2035 in TB incidence rate compared with 2015.
o Zero the level of catastrophic costs for TB affected families by 2035.
Moscow Declaration
Moscow Declaration to End TB: It is the outcome
of first global ministerial conference on ending TB,
in 2017.
London Declaration
Leaders of several
prominent global health and development organizations, together with industry partners,
met in London in 2012 and pledged to unite in their
efforts to support the achievement of the WHO
2020 goals in respect to 10 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).
o Pledge is known as London Declaration on
NTDs.
TRACHOMA
WHO has announced that Nepal has eliminated Trachoma and became the first country in South East Asia to do so.
It is a chronic infective eye disease caused by infection with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis which is transmitted through contact with eye and nose discharge of infected people, particularly young children who are most vulnerable to the infection.
• It is also spread by flies which come in contact with the infected person
• It is one of the causes of the avoidable blindness and one of the 18 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD).
• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India had recently National Trachoma Survey Report (2014-17) and declared India infective Trachoma free under WHO GET2020 program, however it has not been yet announced by WHO.
WHO’s SAFE
WHO’s SAFE (Surgery, Antibodies, Facial
cleanliness, Environmental improvement) strategy
(1997) and Global Elimination of Blinding Trachoma
by 2020 to eliminate Trachoma.
GET2020-
a WHO International Alliance of
interested parties who work for elimination of Trachoma also known as Alliance for Global
Elimination of Trachoma by 2020.
TRIPLE DRUG THERAPY
Recently Triple Drug Therapy regime for eradication of Lymphatic Filariasis was launched.
- Triple Drug Therapy involves combination of three drugs Ivermectin, Diethylcarbamazine Citrate and Albendazol (Known as IDA).
- Lymphatic filariasis, a neglected tropical disease caused by three species of thread-like nematode worms, known as filariae – Wuchereria bancrofti (responsible for 90% cases), Brugia malayi and Brugia timori.
- It’s transmitted to humans through mosquitoes.
- The larval stages of the parasite (microfilaria) circulate in the blood and are transmitted from person to person by mosquitoes.
P null” phenotype
A team of doctors from Mangaluru's Kasturba Medical College (KMC) has identified a rare blood group called “pp” or “P null” phenotype for the first time in India
• The ‘P null’ blood group has anti-PP1Pk
antibody that has the potential to cause acute
intravascular haemolytic reaction to
incompatible blood transfusion. This antibody
is also known to cause recurrent abortions in
women.
BACTERIA WOLBACHIA
Recently successful experiments were conducted in Australia, which demonstrated the positive correlation between presence of Wolbachia bacteria in mosquitoes and reduced spread of diseases such as Malaria and Dengue.
• Wolbachia is a tiny bacterium that is present in up to 60% of all species of insects, including several mosquito species (except Aedes aegypti mosquito: responsible for transmitting dengue, chikungunya and Zika).
• The World Mosquito Program introduces Wolbachia into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Once Wolbachia carrying mosquitoes are released, they breed with wild mosquitoes and over time, the majority of mosquitoes
carry Wolbachia.
• This new method provides bio-control approach to handle these diseases.
WIPO TREATIES
GOI has approved accession to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty.
WIPO Copyright Treaty
It is a special agreement under the Berne Convention (for protection of literary and artistic works) that deals with the protection of works and the rights of their authors in the digital environment.
• It grants following rights:
o the right of distribution
o the right of rental
o a broader right of communication to the public
• Any Contracting Party must comply with the substantive provisions the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.
• The WCT mentions two subject matters to be protected by copyright: computer programs and compilations of data which constitute intellectual creations.
• The term of protection must be at least 50 years for any kind of work.
WIPO Performances and Phonograms
Treaty
• It deals with the rights of two kinds of beneficiaries, particularly in the digital environment:
o performers (actors, singers, musicians, etc.); and
o producers of phonograms (persons or legal entities that take the initiative and have the responsibility for the fixation of sounds)
• It grants them these economic rights: the right of reproduction; the right of distribution; the right of rental and the right of making available.
• The term of protection must be at least 50 years.
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
• It is a specialised self-funding United Nations agency which acts as global forum for intellectual property services, policy, information and cooperation.
• It was established under the WIPO Convention in 1967 and currently has 191 member states. India joined WIPO in 1975.
• The importance of IPR was first recognized in the Paris Convention for the protection of Industrial Property (1883) and Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886) (both administered by WIPO).
o The Paris Convention covers: Inventions (patents), trademarks and industrial designs.
o Works protected under Berne Convention include novels, short stories, songs, musicals and drawings, paintings and sculptures
IPrism
Recently, Cell for IPR Promotion and Management
(CIPAM) in collaboration with ASSOCHAM and
ERICSSON India, launched the second edition of
‘IPrism’.
IPrism is an Intellectual Property (IP)
competition for students of schools,
polytechnic institutes, colleges and
universities. This competition is for residents
of India only.
Lithium Ion Battery
• These are rechargeable batteries having high
energy density and commonly used in
consumer electronics.
• It uses intercalated lithium compound instead
of metallic lithium as its electrode and is able
to store 150 watt-hours electricity per kg of
battery.
• Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries cycle 5000
times or more compared to just 400-500
cycles in lead acid.
• When a LIB is discharging, lithium ions move
from the negative electrode (anode) to the
positive electrode (cathode). When a LIB is
charging, lithium ions move in the opposite
direction, and the negative electrode
becomes the cathode, while the positive
electrode becomes the anode.
Graphene Based Supercapacitors
• It is being produced by the waste/discarded lithium
ion battery.
• Graphene oxide collected form lithium ion battery
showed high specific capacity at low current and it
is novel energy storage system that combined high
energy and power density.
• The process involves conversion of graphite into
graphene oxide by oxidation and subsequent
exfoliation which is then further converted into
reduced graphene oxide.
• Supercapacitor are now being used explicitly, in
wind turbine pitch control, rail, automobile, heavy
industry, telecom system and memory backup.
THERMAL BATTERY
World’s first-ever thermal battery plant was
inaugurated in Andhra Pradesh.
• Conventional battery technology is based on
the system of charging/discharging cycles that
are driven by electricity while thermal
batteries, uses thermal energy to operate, i.e.,
the energy created by temperature
differences.
• A thermal battery consists of two parts: a cool
zone known as sink, and a hot source called
source.
• Both these sides consist of compounds
known as phase-changing materials (PCMs),
which can change their state of matter on the
basis of a physical/chemical reaction.
HYDROGEN-CNG
Delhi is set to be India’s first city to launch
hydrogen-enriched CNG (HCNG) buses in 2019.
• HCNG is a vehicle fuel which is a blend of
compressed natural gas and hydrogen,
typically 8-50% hydrogen by volume.
Advantages:
1. No retrofitment required
2.lower pollutant emissions
o Hydrogen addition to natural gas can decrease engine’s unburned hydrocarbons and speed up the
combustion process.
3. • Improves fuel economy
4. The thermal efficiency of both Natural gas and HCNG increases with increase in load which makes it an ideal fuel for high load applications and heavy-duty vehicles.
WORLD’S FIRST HYDROGEN
FUEL CELL TRAIN
Germany has rolled out world’s first hydrogen fuel
cell powered trains called Coradia iLint.
Hydrogen fuel cell
- It is a fuel cell that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity with water and steam as the only biproducts.
- The excess energy can be stored on board in ion lithium batteries.
• A fuel cell is composed of an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte membrane.
• A fuel cell works by passing hydrogen through the anode of a fuel cell and oxygen through the cathode.
• At the anode, the hydrogen molecules are split into electrons and protons.
• The protons pass through the electrolyte membrane, while the electrons are forced through a circuit, generating an electric current and excess heat.
At the cathode, the protons, electrons, and oxygen combine to produce water molecules.
• Unlike traditional combustion technologies that burn fuel, fuel cells undergo a chemical process to convert hydrogen-rich fuel into electricity.
• Fuel cells do not need to be periodically recharged like batteries, but instead continue to produce electricity as long as a fuel source is provided.
APSARA-U
A research reactor “Apsara-upgraded” has become operational at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay
- It has been made indigenously.
- It is the upgraded version of “Apsara”, the first research reactor in Asia which had became operational in 1956 and was shut down in 2009.
- It uses plate type dispersion fuel elements made of Low Enriched Uranium (LEU).
- Owing to higher neutron flux, this reactor will increase indigenous production of radioisotopes for medical application by about 50%.
Kamini (Kalpakkam Mini)
KAMINI is the only reactor in the world operating with 233U fuel which is produced by the thorium fuel cycle harnessed by the neighboring Fast Breeder Test Reactor.
Dhruva
(at BARC in Trombay)
o It is India’s largest research reactor
India’s three-stage Nuclear Power Programme
• Stage 1: Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor
o In this natural uranium (0.7 % fissile U-235 and the rest is U-238) fuelled pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) which produce electricity while generating plutonium-239 as by-product.
• Stage 2 – Fast Breeder Reactor
o In the second stage, fast breeder reactors (FBRs) would use a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel made from plutonium-239, recovered by reprocessing spent fuel from the first stage, and natural uranium.
o In FBRs, plutonium-239 undergoes fission to produce energy, while the uranium-238 present in the mixed oxide fuel transmutes to additional plutonium-239.
o Thus, the Stage II FBRs are designed to “breed”
more fuel than they consume.
o Recently, India’s first indigenously developed prototype FBR at Kalpakkam achieved criticality, which means reactor is fully operational and safe.
• Stage 3 – Thorium Based Reactors
o A Stage III reactor or an advanced nuclear power system involves a self-sustaining series of thorium-232- uranium-233 fuelled reactors.
o This would be a thermal breeder reactor, which in principle can be refueled after its initial fuel charge using only naturally occurring thorium.
WORLD’S FIRST FLOATING
NUCLEAR PLANT
Russia has created world’s first floating nuclear
plant (FNPP) named as Academik Lomonosov.
• It is owned by the state-run nuclear energy
corporation Rosatom, which is also the
equipment suppliers and consultants for the
Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil
Nadu.
• Upon its connection to the Power grid,
Akademik Lomonosov will become the
northernmost nuclear installation in the
world and it is expected to be put into service
in early 2019.
PRIME MINISTER’S SCIENCE
TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
COUNCIL (PM-STIAC)
21-member advisory body
headed by principal scientific advisor - Dr. K Vijay Raghavan
will replace existing 2 scientific advisory committees- one for Pm and another for cabinet.
Includes secretaries from various departments
it will execute mission oriented programmes, and would monitor the implementation of PM’s vision.
it will advise government on development of “clusters of Excellence” and city based R&D clusters.
Recently, it has identified 9 national science missions:
Natural Language Translation,
Quantum Frontiers,
Artificial Intelligence (AI),
National Biodiversity Mission,
Electric vehicles,
Bioscience for Human Health,
Waste to Wealth,
Deep Ocean exploration,
AGNIi (Accelerating Growth of New India's Innovations)
MISSION INNOVATION
• It was launched at COP21 of UNFCCC in Paris in November 2015. It is a global platform of 23 countries and European Union aimed at accelerating clean energy innovations through
o Enhanced Government funding,
o Greater public-private sector partnership and
o Enhanced global cooperation.
• It seeks to double investments in clean energy innovation over five years.
• India is founding member of Mission Innovation and part of the Steering Committee besides co-lead of innovation challenges on smart grids, off grids and
sustainable bio-fuels.
• Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is nodal agency of this mission in India.
• The first Ministerial meeting was held in June 2016 in San Francisco. 4th MI Ministerial will be hosted by Canada, Vancouver in May 2019.
Initiatives taken
• Mission Innovation Champions Programme was launched by MI countries to felicitate clean energy innovators.
• Hydrogen Innovation Challenge was announced to reduce costs along the value chain and further expand the deployment of hydrogen.
• India announced setting up of First International Incubator for clean energy in public-private partnership at a total investment of around US $ 5 million in Delhi.
The eight Innovation Challenges under Mission
Innovation are the following:
- Smart Grids
- Off-Grid Access to Electricity
- Carbon Capture
- Sustainable Biofuels
- Converting Sunlight
- Clean Energy Materials
- Affordable Heating and Cooling of Buildings
- Renewable and Clean Hydrogen (recently added)
ATAL TINKERING MARATHON
A six-month long Atal Tinkering Marathon has been organized by Atal Tinkering Lab of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of NITI Ayog.
• Its aim is to find out the best student innovators of India.
The marathon puts nation-wide challenge in 6 thematic areas namely Clean Energy, Water resources, Waste management, Healthcare, Smart mobility, and Agri-tech.
Atal Innovation Mission
• It is a flagship initiative set up by the NITI Aayog to
promote innovation and entrepreneurship across
the length and breadth of the country.
• It shall have two core functions:
o Entrepreneurship promotion through Self- Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU), wherein innovators would be supported and mentored to become successful entrepreneurs.
o Innovation promotion: To provide a platform where innovative ideas are generated through-
✓ Atal Tinkering Labs
✓ Atal Incubation Centers
✓ Scale-up support to Established Incubator
IMPRESS — Impactful Policy Research in Social
Sciences
Aim: To identify and fund research proposals
in social sciences with maximum impact on
the governance and society
Eligibility: To provide opportunity for social
science researchers in any institution in the
country
Implementing Agency: Indian Council of
Social Science Research (ICSSR).
SPARC — Scheme for Promotion of Academic
and Research Collaboration
Aim: To boost joint research with global universities from 28 countries and get international expertise to solve major national problems, train Indian students in the best laboratories, deepen academic engagement
and improve the international ranking of Indian Institutes.
• Eligibility: All Indian institutions ranked in top 100 of National Institutional Ranking Framework will be eligible for this scheme that targets PhD and postdoctoral researchers. Foreign institutions in top 100 to top 200 of global academic rankings from the
28 target countries will be eligible.
• Implementing Agency: IIT Kharagpur will be the National Coordinating (NC) Institution.
Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating
Research (AWSAR)
• The scheme has been initiated by National Council of Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC), Department of Science & Technology (DST) to encourage, empower and endow popular science writing through newspapers, magazines, blogs, social
media etc. by young PhD scholars and postdoctoral
fellows during the course of their higher studies.
• Under the scheme best articles which would be selected would be provided monetary incentives.
IMPRINT – II
• Impacting Research, Innovation and Technology or IMPRINT is a national initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) which aims to address engineering challenges in 10 technology domains relevant to India through an inclusive and sustainable
mode
• IMPRINT was launched in 2015 as a joint
initiative of IITs and IISc.
• The round two of IMPRINT – IMPRINT II, will
be jointly funded and steered by MHRD and
Department of Science and Technology
o It will be open to all MHRD funded Higher
Education Institute (HEI)/Centrally Funded
Technical Institution (CFTI). Its scope has
been extended to private institutions as
well.
o Projects with industry support will be
preferred
Ocean Services, Technology, Observations,
Resources Modelling and Science (O-SMART)
Scheme
• It’s an Umbrella scheme under Ministry of
Earth Sciences and encompasses a total of 16
sub-projects addressing ocean development
activities such as Services, Technology,
Resources, Observations and Science.
General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM)
• CGPM is the highest international body of the world
for accurate and precise measurements.
• India became a signatory in 1957.
• The CGPM meets usually once every four years
• The International Bureau of Weights and Measures
(BIPM), the main executive body of CGPM has the
responsibility of defining the International System of
Units (SI).
who maintains IST
Council of Scientific & Industrial Research’s National
Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL).
• Since independence in 1947, the IST has been the
official time for the whole country.
• India’s time zones were first established in 1884. Preindependence
India had two time zones. In the East,
Calcutta Time was 5:30:21 hours ahead of GMT, while
Bombay Time in the West was 4:51:00 hours ahead of
GMT.
• Calcutta Time was abandoned in 1948 and Bombay
Time in 1955.
• Assam already has a Bagaan (tea garden) Time, set an
hour ahead of Indian Standard Time (IST).
Countries with most number of time zones
o France: 12
o United States of America: 11
o Russia: 11
o United Kingdom: 9
COLOURED X-RAY ON
HUMAN
New Zealand scientists have performed the first-ever
3-D, colour X-ray on a human.
The device is based on the traditional black-andwhite
X-ray and incorporates particle-tracking
technology developed for CERN’s Large Hadron
Collider.
• The CERN technology called Medipix
• When X-rays travel through your body, they’re
absorbed by denser materials (bones) and pass
right through softer ones (muscles and other
tissues). The places where the X-rays couldn’t
pass through appear solid white.
• Instead of recording the X-rays as either passing
right through the body or getting absorbed by
the bone, this scanner is better as it records the
precise energy levels of the X-rays as they hit
each particle in your body. It then translates
those measurements into different colours
representing your bones, muscles, and other
tissues.
• Thus, it clearly shows the difference between
bone, muscle and cartilage and also the position
and size of cancerous tumours as well.
SCIENCE-BASED TARGETS
Sixteen Indian companies have recently committed
to set science-based targets.
The science-based targets initiative is a global
team comprised of people from all partner
organisations – the United Nations Global
Compact, CDP, WWF and World Resources
Institute.
• Targets adopted by companies to reduce
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are considered
“science-based” if they are in line with the level
of decarbonization required to keep global
temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius
compared to pre- industrial temperatures.
• In March 2018, Mahindra Sanyo Steel became
the first Indian company to set its science-based
target. Globally, it is also the first steel company
to set a target.
DRY SORBENT INJECTION
DSI
NTPC is opting for dry Sorbent Injection (DSI) system
for controlling sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions.
Dry Sorbent Injection (DSI) system is a pollution
control system for the reduction of SOx (SO2,
SO3), HCI and heavy metals like mercury.
• It is a dry process in which a sorbent (a material
used to absorb or adsorb liquids or gases) is
injected into the coal fired boiler where it
interacts with various pollutants like SOx, HCl
and the resultant dry waste is removed via
either an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) or a
fabric filter baghouse.
NEW ELEMENT WITH
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES DISCOVERED
Researchers at the University of Minnesota (US)
have discovered magnetic properties in
chemical element Ruthenium (Ru).
• Ru belongs to the platinum group, has atomic
number 44 and is mostly used in the electronics
industry for chip resistors and electrical
contacts.
• It is the fourth element to have unique
magnetic properties at room temperature.
Other than this only three elements have been
found to be ferromagnetic at room temperature
- iron (Fe), cobalt (Co), and nickel (Ni).
• It is one of the rarest metals on the earth,
resistant to oxidation, and additional theoretical
predictions claim it has a high thermal stability
FORMALIN
Formalin (formaldehyde) is colorless flammable
chemical, used as an anti-decomposition agent.
• Usage: In pressed wood products, fabrics,
insulation materials and as fungicide, germicide
& disinfectant and as a preservative for bodies
and organs to ensure the specimen doesn’t
decompose.
• Impact: International agency for research on
cancer and US FDA both classify formaldehyde
as a human carcinogen
BISPHENOL A (BPA)
Scientists have created tiny spheres of Titanium
dioxide that can catch and destroy BPA. BPA
being hydrophobic is attracted to the cavity
where it is degraded into harmless chemicals.
• Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical produced in
large quantities for use primarily in the
production of polycarbonate plastics and epoxy
resins
CUSAT STRATOSPHERETROPOSPHERE
RADAR (CUSAT ST-205
RADAR)
• The indigenously built CUSAT ST-205 Radar
recently became operational.
• It is designed to scan the stratosphere over the
Indian ocean for movement of air for precision
of weather, especially the monsoon. It uses
radio waves to detect the atmospheric
perturbations.
• It is situated at the Cochin University.
• The project was financially supported by the
Department of Science and Technology (DST).
ONEER
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,
Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIRIITR),
Lucknow has developed an innovative
technology for “Drinking Water Disinfection
System” with Trade name “OneerTM
