Science & Technology

Home , HD 86081, SARAL, Sextans A, Sextans B

Jatin Verma’s IAS Academy Contact: +91 9582868080 E-Mail: [email protected]

Table of Content

Space Technology {Page No.1-32} ✓ GSAT-30 ✓ Shape of Sun’s corona Accurately Predicted ✓ TOI 700-d ✓ Indian Space Flight Centre ✓ Indian Names to a star and its planet ✓ Cartosat-3 ✓ 50th PSLV launchRISAT-2BR1 ✓ White Dwarf Star ✓ Corona’s Heating Puzzle ✓ NaVIC ✓ Starlink Network Service ✓ Ultima Thule ✓ Project NETRA ✓ Sagittarius A*: A black hole at the centre of the Milky Way ✓ NASA’s ICON ✓ Chandrayaan-2 Mission ✓ Geotail ✓ FEDOR ✓ Neutron Star ✓ Punch Mission ✓ Satellite-based advisory service for deep sea fishermen

Health {Page No.33-43} ✓ Coronavirus ✓ Carbon-based nanostructure removes heavy metals from water ✓ Brahma - Brain Template ✓ Herbicide pollution to be Detected by Carbon Dots ✓ Revival of Penicillin ✓ National Genomic Grid ✓ Salmonella ✓ E-Cigarettes ✓ Vaccine-derived polio virus(VDPV)

IT and Computer {Page No.44-48} ✓ Quantum Supremacy ✓ Google To Set Up AI Research Lab In Bengaluru ✓ StrandHogg

Energy {Page No.49-55} ✓ Head on Generation (HOG) ✓ Winter-Grade Diesel ✓ First Indigenous Fuel Cell System ✓ Methane-powered Rocket Engine ✓ Core catcher installed at Kudankulam

Miscellaneous {Page No.56-72} ✓ Train the trainer (TTT)program in Artificial Intelligence ✓ Guidelines for Evaluation of Nanopharmaceuticals in India ✓ Nobel Prizes,2019 ✓ Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine ✓ Nobel Prize in Physics ✓ Nobel Prize for Chemistry ✓ National Milk Safety and Quality Survey 2018 ✓ Goldschmidtite ✓ CLRI’s Biocatalyst ✓ New Term ‘Yank’ Proposed ✓ Scientific Social Responsibility ✓ Scientific And Useful Profound Research Advancement (SUPRA) ✓ National Broadband Mission ✓ YUva VIgyani KAryakram(Yuvika)-Young Scientist Programme ✓ Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI) ✓ Deep Ocean Mission ✓ India Innovation Index,2019 ✓ Global Cooling Prize ✓ Satellite based

Space Technology

GSAT-30

Context: Recently the nation's latest communication satellite, GSAT-30, was sent to space from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou.

About GSAT-30:

• The 3,357-kg satellite will replace INSAT-4A which was launched in 2005 and marks the first mission of the year for Indian Space Research Organization. • The high-power satellite is equipped with 12 normal C band and 12 Ku band transponders. The unique configuration of the satellite will provide flexible frequency segments and flexible coverage. • In a flight lasting over 38 minutes, European Ariane-5 space vehicle released GSAT-30 in an initial elliptical geosynchronous orbit. Arianespace, the European launch service operator, said it has now sent 24 Indian communication satellites to orbit over the last 30 years. • The APPLE experimental satellite of 1981 was its first Indian contract. • It last launched another replacement satellite - GSAT-31, in February 2019.

Applications of GSAT-30

• DTH (direct to home) television services • Connectivity to VSATs (that support working of banks) ATMs, stock exchange, television uplinking and teleport services, digital satellite news gathering and e-governance applications. • The satellite will also be used for bulk data transfer for a host of emerging telecommunication applications. • The satellite will provide communication services to Indian mainland and islands through the Ku band and wide coverage over Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia through the C band.

Shape of Sun’s corona Accurately Predicted

Context: Solar physicists from Centre for Excellence in Space Sciences (CESSI), IISER Kolkata, have succeeded in predicting the shape of the Sun's corona at the time of the annular eclipse.

About • This is the second successful prediction, counting the last solar eclipse that was viewed from South America recently. ✓ The earlier prediction differed slightly from the actual image.This was imaged by NASA and European Space Agency’s space-based Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) using the LASCO instrument. • The Predictive Solar Surface Flux Transport model developed by the CESSI team can predict the shape of the corona well in advance.

Source-NASA

Significance • This gives advance knowledge and a large window of preparedness for space weather driven by coronal magnetic fields. • It helps to deal with the situation when the dynamic events on the Sun can affect Earth’s outer atmosphere and our technologies, leading to disruption in communication and navigation networks (GPS).

TOI 700 d Context: NASA has reported the discovery of an Earth-size planet, named TOI 700 d, orbiting its star in the Goldilocks zone.

About TOI 700 d: • It is 20% larger than Earth and it orbits its star once every 37 days and receives an amount of energy that is equivalent to 86% of the energy that the Sun provides to Earth. • It is an M dwarf located just over 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado, is roughly 40% of our Sun’s mass and size, and has about half its surface temperature. • Two other planets orbit the star TOI 700 b, which is almost exactly Earth-size, probably rocky, and TOI 700 c, the middle planet, which is 2.6 times larger than Earth, is probably gas- dominated. • The find was confirmed by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which sharpened the measurements that TESS had made, such as orbital period and size.

About Goldilocks zone • It is a habitable zone in the area around a star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets. • Our Earth is in the Sun’s Goldilocks zone.

About the Spitzer Space Telescope

• It is the final mission in NASA's Great Observatories Program. • Spitzer is designed to detect infrared radiation, which is primarily heat radiation. Due to which it was able to see and reveal features of the universe including objects that were too cold to emit visible light.

NASA’s Great Observatories Program

It aims to collect and analyze radiation emitted throughout the entire electromagnetic (EM) spectrum in space. This program consists of a family of four space-based observatories each observing the universe in a different kind of light.

1. Visible-light Hubble Space Telescope (HST) 2. Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) 3. Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO) 4. The Spitzer Space Telescope

Very few such Earth-size planets have been found so far, including some by NASA’s Kepler mission, and this one is the first such discovery by TESS.

Indian Space Flight Centre

Context: The Indian Space Research Organisation has finalised the location at Karnataka’s Challakere, to set up a human spaceflight centre (HSFC).

About the Human Space Flight Centre • The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proposed a ₹ 2,700-crore master plan to create top infrastructure that will house its Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC). • Apart from all this work, Challakere will also host work related to crew and service modules of the spacecraft that carries the astronauts and mission control. • The Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) is a body under Indian Space Research Organisation to coordinate Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. • The agency will be responsible for implementation of the Gaganyaan project.

About Gaganyaan project

• Gaganyaan is a crewed orbital spacecraft that is expected to take three astronauts to space for a period of seven days. • For the mission, ISRO is planning to carry out two unmanned missions in December 2020 and July 2021, followed by the manned mission by December 2021. • ISRO's Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) will be used for the manned space mission. • If completed on schedule, India will become the world's fourth nation to conduct independent human spaceflight after Russia, U.S.A and China. • The first crewed flight is planned for December 2021 on a home-grown GSLV-III rocket.

Indian Names to a star and its planet

Context: A white yellow star in the Sextans constellation and its Jupiter-like exoplanets, which were earlier named HD 86081 and 86081b, will now have Indian names.

Procedure for Naming celestial bodies • IAU has allowed every country in the world to give a famous name to a selected pair of exoplanets and its host star. • Once a star and few of its characteristics are found, they are listed in a catalogue such as Henry Draper Catalogue (HD) and assigned telephone-number-like designations.

About the International Astronomical Union (IAU): HQ: Paris, France Mission: • To promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. • To assign designations (names) to celestial bodies (stars, planets, asteroids, etc.) and any surface features on them.

About the announcement of The International Astronomical Union (IAU): • The IAU chose the name at the end of a global contest called ‘NameExoWorlds’. • India was allotted HD 86081 and its exoplanet HD 86081b. • The white yellow star and the planet in the Sextans constellation got the Indian Name. • The Star will be called ‘Bhibha’, a pioneering Indian woman scientist, and the planet will be known as ‘Santamasa’. • In India, the campaign was coordinated by the Public Outreach and Education Committee of the Astronomical Society of India (ASI).

About Sextans Constellation • Sextans constellation lies in the southern sky, near the celestial equator. • Sextans is located in a dim region of the sky between the constellations Hydra, Crater, and Leo. • The constellation was created by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. • It is a rather faint one, with only one star brighter than 5th magnitude.

About Exoplanets • Planets that orbit around stars other than our Sun are called exoplanets. • Exoplanets are very hard to see with telescopes as they are hidden by the bright glare of the stars they orbit. • Exoplanets are generally detected by looking at the effects these planets have on the stars they orbit. • Another way to search for exoplanets is to look for "wobbly" stars. A star that has planets doesn’t orbit perfectly around its center.

Discovery of exoplanets • The first exoplanet was discovered in 1995, designated 51 Pegasi b.It was named Dimidium in the first NameExoWorlds • Until July 1, 2019, astronomers have identified 4,098 exoplanets of which 665 stars have more than one planet. • Significantly, this year's Nobel Prize in Physics has been partly awarded to the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.

About ‘Bibha’, nee HD 86081: • It is located in the constellation of Setxans. • It is as hot as the sun, with a surface temperature of about 6,000 degrees Kelvin. • It is 1.55 times bigger, 1.21 times massive, and 1.75 times brighter than the Sun. • ‘Bibha’ is an ageing star, 6.210 billion years old.

About Santamasa, HD 86081b: • It is the only planet of ‘Bibha’, nee HD 8608. • It revolves in a nearly circular orbit just in 2.1375 days.

Pi-Meson • Pi-meson or pion is a subatomic particle defined in particle physics. • They are unstable which exists with positive, negative and neutral charges. • They are present in proton, neutron and electron of an atom.

Cartosat-3

Context: India’s PSLV-C47 successfully launched Cartosat-3 and 13 commercial nanosatellites from USA, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.

About Cartosat 3

Orbit Polar Sun synchronous orbit (PSLV-C47)

It is the third generation of Earth-observation remote sensing satellites.

Details It is an agile advanced satellite with high resolution imaging capability.

The camera on Cartosat-3 or the resolution of the images it would be able to take is likely to have the capability to take images with resolution better than 0.25 meters.

Address the increased user’s demands for large scale urban planning, rural resource and infrastructure development, coastal land use and land cover etc. Applications Military espionage: Cartosat 2 satellite series with a resolution, though coarser, of about 65 cm was also used to plan and execute military operations such as ‘surgical strikes’ across the Line of Control in 2016 and the Manipur-Myanmar border in 2015.

Cartosat missions • The Cartosat satellites are part of the large range of earth observation satellites deployed by ISRO, starting with the Indian Remote Sensing series of satellites. • Cartosat-1, launched in May 2005, was the first Indian remote sensing satellite capable of taking three-dimensional images. • The first of the Cartosat-2 series was launched in 2007 and these have been substantially advanced versions of Cartosat-1. Seven of them are in orbit, each with the capability of taking images of resolution better than 1 meter.

Indian Remote Sensing Satellite System

It contains following theme-based satellite series

• Land/water resources applications (RESOURCESAT series and RISAT series) • Ocean/atmospheric studies (OCEANSAT series, INSAT-VHRR, INSAT-3D, Megha- Tropiques and SARAL) • Large scale mapping applications (CARTOSAT series)

50th PSLV launch RISAT-2BR1

Context: India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) marked its ‘Golden Jubilee’ launch by injecting satellite RISAT-2BR1 and 9 other customer satellites into their intended orbits on PSLV C48.

About RISAT-2BR1: • RISAT-2BR1 is a radar imaging earth observation satellite weighing about 628 kg. • The satellite will provide services in the field of Agriculture, Forestry and Disaster Management. • The mission life of RISAT-2BR1 is 5 years.

Cooperation with other Countries: • Along with the RISAT-2bR1 the nine customer satellites of Israel, Italy, Japan and the USA were precisely injected into their designated orbits. • These satellites were launched under a commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).

About PSLV

• The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). • It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into sun-synchronous orbits, a service that was, until the advent of the PSLV in 1993, commercially available only from Russia. • It has 4 stages with 1st and 3rd being Solid and 2th and 4th being Liquid stage. • PSLV can also launch small size satellites into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). • Most notable among the launches was the launch of PSLV C37 which successfully deployed 104 satellites in sun-synchronous orbit, tripling the previous record held by Russia for the highest number of satellites sent to space on a single launch. • The PSLV has a history of successful launches of payloads that include Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission and the space recovery mission

Launch vehicles of ISRO

Source-ISRO

New Space India Limited (NSIL)

Central Public Sector Enterprise of the Government of India.

About It was established on 6 March 2019 under the administrative control of the Department of Space (DOS).

Objective To scale up industry participation in Indian space programmes

Details It will compliment Antrix Corp. As its major focus is on the Domestic Market while Antrix’s major focus is catered to foreign markets.

White Dwarf Star

Context: Astronomers have reported the first indirect evidence of a giant planet orbiting a white dwarf star (WDJ0914+1914). The researchers used the Slogan Digital Sky Survey to peer at 7,000 white dwarf stars before finding one WDJ0914+1914 that showed evidence of harboring a giant planet.

About WDJ0914+1914 • This white dwarf is 1500 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Cancer the Crab. • The Neptune-like planet orbits the white dwarf every ten days, and cannot be seen directly. • The evidence is in the form of a disc of gas (hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur) formed from its evaporating atmosphere. • The White Dwarf Planet is evaporating (Reason: although the white dwarf is very small, it is still extremely hot, about 50,432 degrees Fahrenheit (28,000 degrees Celsius)). • Spikes of gas were detected by the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory in Chile. • The study suggests there could be many more planets around such white dwarf stars waiting to be discovered.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) • It is one of the largest, most detailed, and most often cited astronomical surveys that has ever existed • It has the goal of expanding our understanding of the large-scale evolution and structure of the universe, the formation of stars and galaxies, the history of the Milky Way, and the science behind dark energy.

Significance of the Discovery: • Only smaller objects such as asteroids had been detected so far around the white dwarf stars. • This is the first evidence of an actual planet in such a system.

Corona’s Heating Puzzle

Context: An international team of researchers of Peking University, China; including one at Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru, has unravelled why the Sun’s atmosphere is hotter than its surface.

About Corona’s Heating Puzzle • The temperature at the core of the Sun is nearly 15 million degrees Celsius, while that at its surface layer, known as the photosphere, is merely 5,700 degrees C. • The natural thing to expect is that still further outwards, in its atmosphere, known as the corona, the temperatures would be comparable to that at the surface (photosphere). • But in reality the temperature of the corona is much higher. It starts increasing outside the photosphere, reaching a value of about one million degrees or more in the corona.

Source-NASA

Deciphering the puzzle • The key to the puzzle lies in geyser-like jets known as solar spicules that emanate from the interface of the corona and the photosphere. • While in a photograph these look like tiny hairlike projections, they are in fact 200-500 kilometres wide and shoot up to heights of about 5,000 km above the solar surface. • It has been suspected that these spicules act as conduits through which mass and energy from the lower atmosphere bypass the photosphere and reach the corona. • The present study, has deciphered how these spicules form and also shows that they act as conduits through which hot plasma is carried into the corona region.

NavIC Context: The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and its older commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd. are poised to commercialize India’s regional navigation satellite system (IRNSS), NavIC, with Antrix recently floating two separate tenders.

Source-TOI 12

About NAVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation)

• NavIC is India's own navigation system, similar to the U.S.' GPS. • It works based on the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). • This configuration ensures each satellite is being tracked by at least one of fourteen ground stations at any given point of time, with a high chance of most of them being visible from any point in India. • There are currently eight IRNSS satellites in geosynchronous and geostationary orbits. ✓ Three of these satellites are in geostationary orbit (GEO) while the remaining in geosynchronous orbits (GSO) that maintain an inclination of 29° to the equatorial plane. ✓ IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, ▪ Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and ▪ Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users. • NavIC is designed for a position accuracy better than 20 metres in India, its primary coverage area. • An area of 1,500 km from the Indian boundary will also be covered by this system. • It will provide a Standard Positioning Service to all users and an encrypted Restricted Service to authorised users. • NavIC will provide drivers and other users in India with visual and voice navigation. Its primary beneficiaries will be Indian mariners and fishermen, who are being provided with NavIC handsets.

Applications of NavIC

• Disaster Management • Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation • Precise Timing • Vehicle tracking and fleet management • Integration with mobile phones • Mapping and Geodetic data capture • Visual and voice navigation for drivers

Significance of NavIC

• Currently India uses the GPS system of USA for navigation. Hence, development of this system would reduce India's dependence on other countries for navigation purposes.

• As the system covers the entire SAARC region and extends up to 1500 km outside India.It would also help the disaster relief management to make earlier plans and save the lives of people in India as well as up to 1500 km around it. • It will help in mitigating the impact of disasters by providing information of disaster timing. • Since it is an indigenously developed system which would be used for military purposes, it would make the data transmission more secure and confidential. • It will help the mariners for far navigation and fisherman to get information about the valuable fisheries location. • India can leverage it to reach out to its neighbours and demonstrate its global leadership aspirations through sharing of NAVIC services. Hence, It would bolster the ability of India to serve as a net security provider in the Indian Sub- continent.

About Antrix Corporation

• It was incorporated in 1992 (under the Companies Act, 1956) • It is a wholly owned Government of India Company under the administrative control of the Department of Space (DOS). • It is the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). • Antrix promotes and commercially markets the products and services emanating from the Indian Space Programme. • In the year 2008, the Company was awarded ‘MINIRATNA’ status.

Recently NavIC was awarded the certification by the 3GPP (The 3rd Generation Partnership Project)

About 3GPP (The 3rd Generation Partnership Project) • Organization Partners:It unites Seven different telecommunications standard development organizations , known as “Organizational Partners” and provides their members with a stable environment to produce the Reports and Specifications that define 3GPP technologies. • The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a standards organization which develops protocols for mobile telephony • Coverage:The project covers cellular telecommunications technologies, including radio access, core network and service capabilities, which provide a complete system description for mobile telecommunications. • Its best-known work is the development and maintenance of ✓ GSM and related 2G and 2.5G standards, including GPRS and EDGE ✓ UMTS and related 3G standards, including HSPA and HSPA+ ✓ LTE and related 4G standards, including LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro ✓ 5G NR and related 5G standards ✓ An evolved IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) developed in an access independent manner

Navigations systems of different countries

Europe Galileo

Russia GLONASS

China Beidou

Japan Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS)

Starlink Network service Context:

SpaceX company launched a Falcon 9 rocket on a mission to carry the first batch of five dozen small satellites into low-Earth orbit for new Starlink internet service.

SpaceX Starlink • Starlink is a satellite constellation being constructed by American company SpaceX to provide satellite Internet access. • The constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites, working in combination with ground transceivers.

Falcon 9 • It is a partially reusable two-stage-to-orbit medium lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX in the United States. • It is the first orbital class rocket capable of reflight. • SpaceX believes rocket reusability is the key breakthrough needed to reduce the cost of access to space and enable people to live on other planets.

Significance of space-based Internet services • Currently, about 4 billion people, more than half the world’s population, do not have access to reliable Internet networks. • And that is because the traditional ways to deliver the Internet fibre-optic cables or wireless networks cannot take it everywhere on Earth. • In many remote areas, or places with difficult terrain, it is not feasible or viable to set up cables or mobile towers. Signals from satellites in space can overcome this obstacle easily. • Placing of satellites in LEO instead of geostationary orbit also has a major advantage: As the longer the distance in geostationary orbits has a time lag, or latency.

Ultima Thule Context: The first detailed images beamed back by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft after its flyby of Ultima Thule show that the icy ‘worldlet’ resembles a reddish snowman.

About Ultima Thule • It is the most distant and possibly the oldest space object ever explored. • It has been renamed by International Astronomical Union(IAU) as ‘Arrokoth’ • It is one of many frigid bodies way out in the Kuiper Belt, the solar system's "third zone" beyond Neptune's orbit. • It belongs to a class of Kuiper belt objects called the “cold classicals”, which have nearly circular orbits with low inclinations to the solar plane.

The Kuiper belt • It is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. • It consists mainly of small bodies or remnants from when the Solar System formed. • While many asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles (termed "ices"), such as methane, ammonia and water. • The Kuiper belt is home to three officially recognized dwarf planets: Pluto, Haumea and Makemake.

• It used to be 2 separate objects. It likely formed over time as a rotating cloud of small, icy bodies started to combine. • Eventually, 2 larger bodies remained & slowly spiraled closer until they touched, forming the current bi-lobed object.

NASA's New Frontiers program

• The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of researching several of the Solar System bodies, including the dwarf planet Pluto. • Missions under the program are as follows

New Horizons Juno OSIRIS-REx Dragonfly

It's the first It is a space It will travel to a near- It is a planned spacecraft. Mission to the probe orbiting Earth asteroid named It will send a mobile Pluto System Bennu and bring a small robotic rotorcraft lander

and the Kuiper the planet sample back to Earth for to Titan, the largest Belt. Jupiter. study. moon of Saturn.

It was launched It was launched It was launched in in 2006 and in 2011 and September 2016 reached Pluto in entered Jupiter 2015 orbit in 2016

International Astronomical Union (IAU)

• It was founded in 1919. • Its individual members are professional astronomers from all over the world, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, who are active in professional research, education and outreach in astronomy. • Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. • The IAU is a member of the International Science Council (ISC). ✓ The International Science Council (ISC) is a non-governmental organization with a unique global membership that brings together international scientific unions and associations and national and regional scientific organizations including Academies and Research Councils. • Activities of the IAU are as follows ✓ The organization of scientific meetings. ✓ Providing definition of fundamental astronomical and physical constants; unambiguous astronomical nomenclature ✓ Holding informal discussions on the possibilities for future international large- scale facilities.

Project NETRA Context:

ISRO has initiated an early warning system called Project NETRA (Network for space object Tracking and Analysis), that would help detect space hazards to Indian satellites.

About the Project NETRA (Network for space object Tracking and Analysis)

Initiated by ISRO

Project is expected to give India its own capability in space situational awareness (SSA), something that other space powers already have. • The SSA is used to predict threats from debris to Indian satellites. It also serves as a warning system against missiles or a space attack against India. Space situational • Our SSA will first be for low-earth orbits or LEO which have analysis(SSA) remote-sensing spacecraft.

It can spot, track and catalogue objects as small as 10 cm, up to a range of 3,400 km and equal to a space orbit of around 2,000 km.

The new SSA centre floated by ISRO would consolidate debris tracking activities, currently spread over ISRO centres across India.

Eventual goal for NETRA would be to capture the geostationary orbit.

ISRO also plans on putting up a number of observational facilities, including connected radars, telescopes, data processing units and a control centre.

Other details A high-precision, long-range telescope in Leh and a radar in the North East are also being planned.

Along with them, ISRO will also use the Multi-Object Tracking Radar (MOTR) put up at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, and the telescopes at Ponmudi and Mount Abu to get a broad SSA picture.

By establishing an observation system of its own, ISRO will become a part of the global network and can access precise data.

Background:Problem of Space Junk • Space junk is an ever-growing problem with more than 7,500 tonnes of redundant hardware now thought to be circling the Earth. Ranging from old rocket bodies and defunct

spacecraft through to screws and even flecks of paint – this material poses a collision hazard to operational missions. • The rising population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station (ISS), space shuttles, satellites and other spacecraft.

Current situation • Currently there are 15 functional Indian communication satellites in the geostationary orbit of 36,000 km including 13 remote sensing satellites in LEO of up to 2,000 km and eight navigation satellites in medium earth orbits. • Even now ISRO does collision avoidance manoeuvres on its satellites. To do that, it depends on data from NORAD and others available in the public domain. But, it doesn't get accurate (or comprehensive) information. ✓ The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) ▪ It is an initiative by the US and Canada which helps in sharing selective debris data with many countries. ▪ It provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection.

Types of satellite orbits

Geostationary orbit • As satellites in geostationary orbit continuously cover a large portion of the Earth, this makes it an ideal orbit for telecommunications or for monitoring continent-wide weather patterns and environmental conditions. • It also decreases costs as ground stations do not need to track the satellite. A constellation of three equally spaced satellites can provide full coverage of the Earth, except for the polar regions. • These satellites appear nearly stationary in the sky as seen by a ground-based observer.

Geostationary transfer orbit • This is an elliptical Earth orbit used to transfer a spacecraft from a low altitude orbit or flight trajectory to geostationary orbit. The apogee is 36,000 km. • When a spacecraft reaches this point, its apogee kick motor is fired to inject it into geostationary orbit.

Low Earth orbits • A low Earth orbit is normally at an altitude of less than 1000 km and could be as low as 160 km above the Earth. • Satellites in this circular orbit travel at a speed of around 7.8 km per second. At this speed, a satellite takes approximately 90 minutes to circle the Earth.

• In general, these orbits are used for remote sensing, military purposes and for human spaceflight as they offer close proximity to the Earth’s surface for imaging and the short orbital periods allow for rapid revisits. • The International Space Station is in low Earth orbit.

Medium low Earth orbit • This orbit takes place at an altitude of around 1000 km and is particularly suited for constellations of satellites mainly used for telecommunications. • A satellite in this orbit travels at approximately 7.3 km per second.

Polar orbits • Polar orbits pass over the Earth’s polar regions from north to south. • These orbits mainly take place at low altitudes of between 200 to 1000 km. • Satellites in polar orbit look down on the Earth’s entire surface and can pass over the North and South Poles several times a day. • Polar orbits are used for reconnaissance and Earth observation. • If a satellite is in polar orbit at an altitude of 800 km, it will be travelling at a speed of approximately 7.5 km per second.

Sun synchronous orbits • These are polar orbits which are synchronous with the Sun. • A satellite in a sun synchronous orbit would usually be at an altitude of between 600 to 800 km. • These orbits are used for Earth observation, solar study, weather forecasting and reconnaissance, as ground observation is improved if the surface is always illuminated by the Sun at the same angle when viewed from the satellite.

DRDO NETRA: A Project For Internet Surveillance

• NETRA (NEtwork TRaffic Analysis) is a software network developed by India's Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory. • It is used by the Intelligence Bureau, India's domestic intelligence agency, and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the country's external intelligence agency to intercept and analyse internet traffic using predefined filters.

Sagittarius A*: A black hole at the centre of the Milky Way Context: In a research published recently in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists have sought to explain Sagittarius A*’s unusual activity.

Key Findings • It may be that the Sagittarius A* has become hungrier, and has been feeding on nearby matter at a markedly faster rate, which one researcher described as a “big feast”. • A black hole does not emit light by itself, but the matter that it consumes can be a source of light. A large quantity of gas from the S0-2 star, which travelled close to the black hole last year, may now have reached the latter. • Other possibilities of the heightened activity are that Sagittarius A* could be growing faster than usual in size, or that the current model that measures its level of brightness is inadequate and is in need of an update.

About Sagittarius A*

• It is a supermassive black hole which sits 26,000 light years away from Earth, near the Galactic Centre, or the centre of the Milky Way.It is one of the few black holes where we can witness the flow of matter nearby. ✓ Black hole: It is a great amount of matter packed into a very small area.The result is a gravitational field so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape.They were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, • Since the discovery of Sagittarius, A* 24 years ago, it has been fairly calm. This year, however, Sagittarius A* has shown unusual activity, and the area around it has been much brighter than usual.

NASA’s ICON Context: NASA has launched a satellite, Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) to explore the mysterious, dynamic region where air meets space.

About NASA’s ICON and GOLD missions • Together these missions provide the most comprehensive observations of Earth’s upper atmosphere. • GOLD provides an overarching view of the entire western hemisphere, while ICON zooms in for close up details. • These missions help us understand an unpredictable area of near Earth space that can affect how we live and explore. • ICON studies each of the many forces affecting simultaneously affecting the upper atmosphere, searching for cause and effect relationships. It will also study the airglow formed from gases in the ionosphere and also measure the charged environment right around the spacecraft which is at a level of 580 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. • During the day GOLD studies how the thermosphere responds to solar activity. At night GOLD examines disruptions in the ionosphere i.e unpredictable bubbles in the charged gas that appear over equator and tropics, sometimes interfering with radio communications.

About Ionosphere

• The ionosphere is charged part of the upper atmosphere extending several hundred miles (kilometers) up. • Due to the ability of ionized atmospheric gases to refract high frequency (HF, or shortwave) radio waves, the ionosphere can reflect radio waves directed into the sky back toward the Earth. • It’s in constant flux as space weather bombards it from above and Earth weather from below, sometimes disrupting radio communications. Atmospheric layers and their characteristics

Source-Ozonehole.com

Source-NASA

Chandrayaan-2 Mission Context:

After the failed soft-landing of Chandrayaan-2’s landing module as all ground communication was lost with it just moments before the scheduled landing,ISRO has managed to locate the lander Vikram, on the Moon's surface.

About Chandrayaan-2 Mission • It comprised an Orbiter, Lander and Rover to explore the unexplored South Pole of the Moon.

Components of the Details Mission

It carries eight scientific payloads for mapping the lunar surface and studying the exosphere of the Moon. Orbiter It would remain in orbit for a year.

It was the first time that ISRO attempted to soft-land a module in extra-terrestrial space. Lander-Vikram Functions of the Lander was to study the moon’s atmosphere and look out for seismic activity.

The 6-wheeled, AI Solar powered was developed indigenously by ISRO. Rover-Pragyan Both the Lander and Rover were designed to work for only 14 days (1 lunar day).

• The GSLV Mk-III carried Chandrayaan 2 to its designated orbit. ✓ GSLV MK-III isa three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO. The vehicle has two solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster and a cryogenic upper stage. ✓ GSLV Mk III is designed to carry 4-ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is about twice the capability of the GSLV Mk II. • The primary objective of Chandrayaan-2 is to demonstrate the ability to soft-land on the lunar surface and operate a robotic rover on the surface. • Scientific goals include studies of lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, the lunar exosphere, and signatures of hydroxyl and water ice. 24

• Chandrayaan-2 would have made India the 4th country in the world to soft-land on the moon, a feat achieved only by US, USSR and China till now.

Previous Moon Probes • Orbiter mission Chandrayaan-1: It was sent using a PSLV booster. The spacecraft had 11 payloads. One of the U.S. payloads shares credit with Chandrayaan-1 for confirming the presence of water ice on the moon. • Moon Impactor Probe: It was carrying the Indian tricolor image that was made to hard-land on the lunar south pole.

Soft landing

• A soft landing is any type of aircraft, rocket or spacecraft-lander landing that does not result in damage to/the destruction of the vehicle or anything on board. • Soft-landing requires maintaining the required velocity with the thrusters and creating a fine balance among them. • Another challenge is the moon dust which could wreck the engines of the thrusters.

Geotail

Context: Instrument on Chandrayaan-2, CLASS, designed to detect signatures of elements in the Moon’s soil, detected charged particles during the mission. This happened during the orbiter’s passage through the “geotail”.

About Geotail • The region exists as a result of the interactions between the Sun and Earth. • The geotail is a region in space that allows the best observations.

Formation of the Geotail

Source-IE

• The Sun emits the solar wind, which is a continuous stream of charged particles. • These particles are embedded in the extended magnetic field of the Sun. Since the Earth has a magnetic field, it obstructs the solar wind plasma. • This interaction results in the formation of a magnetic envelope around Earth. • On the Earth side facing the Sun, the envelope is compressed into a region that is approximately three to four times the Earth radius. • On the opposite side, the envelope is stretched into a long tail, which extends beyond the orbit of the Moon. It is this tail that is called the geotail.

Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS)

• CLASS measures the Moon's X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectra to examine the presence of major elements such as Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Calcium, Titanium, Iron, and Sodium. • The XRF technique will detect these elements by measuring the characteristic X- rays they emit when excited by the Sun's rays.

FEDOR

Context: The humanoid robot Fedor, the first from Russia sent into orbit, has reached the International Space Station. About FEDOR 26

• FEDOR, which stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research, the Skybot F-850 is the first humanoid robot to be sent to space by Russia. • It will spend 10 days learning to assist astronauts on the International Space Station. • The robot’s main purpose is to be used in operations that are especially dangerous for humans onboard spacecraft and in outer space.

Earlier uses of humanoid robots in space applications • In 2011, NASA sent up Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot developed with General Motors that had a similar aim of working in high-risk environments. • In 2013, Japan sent up a small robot called Kirobo along with the ISS’s first Japanese space commander.

Significance • Fedor copies human movements, a key skill that allows it to remotely help astronauts to carry out tasks. • Fedor is described as ‘potentially useful’ on Earth for working in high radiation environments, demining and tricky rescue missions.

International Space Station

Orbit Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

It orbits Earth every 90 minutes.

1.NASA (United States) 2.Roscosmos (Russia) Principal space agencies 3.JAXA (Japan) 4.ESA (Europe) 5.CSA (Canada)

It serves as a home where crews of astronauts and cosmonauts live.

Applications The space station is also a unique science laboratory.

Neutron Star

Context: Astronomers at West Virginia University have found the most massive neutron star J0740+6620, ever recorded, located about 4,600 light-years from Earth.

• Newly found neutron star is very dense, about 2.17 times the mass of the sun packed into a sphere that’s only 15 miles across.

Background

• Scientists have been able to use gravitational waves to make several discoveries about neutron stars recently, including a pair of them smashing together to create a massive “kilonova.” • Scientists believe that a similar kilonova that happened about 4.6 billion years ago might have been the source of gold and platinum on Earth.

IndIGO (Indian Initiative in Gravitational-wave Observations)

• It is an initiative to set up advanced experimental facilities, with appropriate theoretical and computational support, for a multi-institutional Indian national project in gravitational-wave astronomy. • Since 2009, the IndIGO Consortium has been involved in constructing the Indian road- map for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and a phased strategy towards Indian participation in realizing the crucial gravitational-wave observatory in the Asia- Pacific region. • The current major IndIGO plans on gravitational-wave astronomy relate to the LIGO- India project. • LIGO-India is a planned advanced gravitational-wave detector to be located in India, to be built and operated in collaboration with the LIGO USA and its international partners Australia, Germany and the UK.

Shapiro Delay Phenomenon

• Scientists measure the mass of a neutron star using the “Shapiro Delay” phenomenon. • The space around the star is warped due to its high gravitational pull. Pulses from a pulsar need to travel farther through that warped space, which makes them more time. That delay tells scientists how dense a neutron star is.

Life cycle of stars (Nebula to Black hole)

Source-Futurism

Neutron Stars • Neutron stars are one of the possible evolutionary end-points of high mass stars. • Once the core of the star has completely burned to iron, energy production stops and the core rapidly collapses, squeezing electrons and protons together to form neutrons and neutrinos thus producing a neutron star. • Neutron stars are very dense (mass of three times the Sun can be fit in a sphere of just 20km in diameter). • If its mass is any greater, its gravity will be so strong that it will shrink further to become a black hole

Punch Mission Context: Indian Solar physicist from Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Dipankar Banerjee, is selected as a Co-Investigator of NASA's PUNCH mission .

Background: NASA has selected the following two missions to advance our understanding of the Sun and its dynamic effects on space.

1.Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) • Mission will focus directly on the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, and how it generates the solar wind. • PUNCH will image and track the solar wind as it leaves the Sun. The spacecraft also will track coronal mass ejections

2.Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites(TRACERS) • TRACERS will observe particles and fields at the Earth’s northern magnetic cusp region the region encircling Earth’s pole, where our planet’s magnetic field lines curve down toward Earth.

Satellite-based advisory service for deep sea fishermen Context: The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) recently launched two marine information dissemination products recently, to enhance the livelihood of fishermen and increase their security from extreme weather conditions.

These products are as follows 1. GEMINI 2. PFZ forecasts

Gagan Enabled Mariner’s Instrument for Navigation and Information(GEMINI)

Objective - Seamless and effective dissemination of emergency information and communication on disaster warnings, Potential Fishing Zones (PFZ) and Ocean States Forecasts (OSF) to fishermen • INCOIS together with AAI developed a low-cost GAGAN system-enabled GEMINI device and electronically designed and manufactured by a private industry M/S Acord, Bangalore under Make in India Program. • It is a portable device which receives data from the GAGAN satellites and sends it to the user’s cellphone. • The GEMINI app on the cellphone decodes the signals from the GEMINI device and alerts the user on imminent threats like cyclones, high waves, strong winds along with PFZ and search and rescue mission. • Due to earlier limitations of the limited range of mobile networks and VHFs, the erstwhile information system was not able to communicate disaster warnings to the fishermen if they moved away from the coast beyond 10-12 km. • GEMINI has developed on this limitation by utilising GAGAN satellite systems of the AAI to transmit PFZ and disaster warnings to the fishermen.

• Data coverage: It covers the entire Indian Ocean full-time, which will help in information transmission to the fishermen far away from coastal areas.

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS)

• It is an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). • It regularly provides information, advisories, ocean data, weather forecasts, potential fishing zones (PFZ) data to beneficiaries like fishermen, Indian Navy, marine industries, shipping etc.

GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation)

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have collaborated to develop the GAGAN as a Developed by regional Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS).

To provide a navigation system to assist aircraft in accurate landing Goal over the Indian airspace and in the adjoining area and applicable to safety-to-life civil operations.

Satellites carrying • GSAT-15 payload of GAGAN • GSAT-8 system • GSAT-10

Coverage It covers the area from Africa to Australia and has expansion capability for seamless navigation services across the region.

GAGAN is the first Satellite-Based Augmentation System in the world which has been certified for approach with vertical guidance operating in the equatorial ionospheric region.

It is a step by the Government towards initial Satellite-based Other details Navigation Services in India.

GAGAN is also interoperable with other international SBAS systems.

While GAGAN will redefine navigation over Indian Airspace, IRNSS will provide independent and self-reliant satellite based navigation services over Indian region.

Potential Fishing Zones (PFZ) forecasts • Newly developed by INCOIS, which will provide advisories on Potential Fishing Zones to fishermen 3 days in advance. • The PFZ forecasts are generated using numerical models operationalized by INCOIS and helps overcome the operational difficulties in providing the PFZ advisories during overcast skies based on satellite data.

HEALTH

Coronavirus Context: An outbreak of novel coronavirus (nCoV) in Wuhan, China, which has also spread to Thailand and Japan, has stoked fear across the world. About the virus • Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses causing illnesses from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). • It has not been previously identified in humans. It is transmitted between animals and humans. • Coronavirus seems more contagious as each person with it appears to infect 2.2 other people, on average. • Coronavirus is most dangerous to people who are older than 65, or have chronic illnesses or a weak immune system. • Symptoms: The first symptoms, fever and cough, are similar to that of the flu, so the diseases can be hard to tell apart without a test to identify the virus. Pneumonia is common among coronavirus patients, even among those whose cases are not severe. • Treatment: There is no approved antiviral drug for the coronavirus, though several are being tested.

It has also been declared as Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by WHO.

Procedure for declaring a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)

• The term Public Health Emergency of International Concern is defined in The International Health Regulations,2005 as “an extraordinary event which is determined ✓ To constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease. ✓ To potentially require a coordinated international response. • The responsibility of determining whether an event is within this category lies with the WHO Director-General and requires the convening of a committee of experts the International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee.

Implications of declaring PHEIC

• It gives the WHO’s Emergency Committee the authority to recommend travel advisories for cities, regions, and countries.It may lead to restrictions on travel and trade. • It encourages nations to cooperate as much as possible by coordinating personnel, funds and other resources, with the WHO at the helm. • The declaration serves notice to all United Nations member states that the world’s top health advisory body thinks the situation is serious. • While the recommendations aren’t enforceable, there’s considerable pressure for countries to abide by the WHO’s advisories.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also gave an official name to the disease ‘COVID-19’ • The “CO” stands for coronavirus, “VI” for virus and “D” for disease. The coronavirus itself is called nCoV-2019. • It is the seventh coronavirus in the row known to affect humans.

Process of naming of the diseases by WHO • The WHO, in consultation with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has identified best practices for naming new human diseases. • These best practices apply to a new disease: o That is an infection, syndrome, or disease of humans; o That has never been recognised before in humans; o That has potential public health impact; and o Where no disease name is yet established in common usage • Names that are assigned by the WHO may or may not be approved by the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) at a later stage.

International Classification of Diseases (ICD)

• It is managed by the WHO. • It provides a final standard name for each human disease according to standard guidelines. • Guidelines issued by ICD are aimed at reducing the negative impact from names while balancing science, communication and policy.

As inappropriate naming of the diseases causes unintended negative impacts by stigmatising certain communities and economic sectors. So reference to the following is avoided by WHO while naming a disease

• Geographical location(eg Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Spanish Flu, Japanese encephalitis) • People’s names (eg Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Chagas disease) • The species or class of animal or food (eg swine flu, monkeypox etc.), • Cultural or occupational references (eg miners, butchers, cooks, nurses etc.) • Terms that incite undue fear such as death, fatal and epidemic. • Term “severe”if diseases does not have a very high initial case fatality rate

About Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP),India

• The Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) was initiated in assistance with the World bank, in the year 2004. • The scheme aimed to strengthen disease surveillance for infectious diseases to detect and respond to outbreaks immediately.

Programme Components: • Integration and decentralization of surveillance activities through the establishment of surveillance units at Centre, State and District level. • Human Resource Development – Training of State Surveillance Officers, District Surveillance Officers, Rapid Response Team and other Medical and Paramedical staff on principles of disease surveillance. • Use of Information Communication Technology for collection, collation, compilation, analysis and dissemination of data. • Strengthening of public health laboratories • Inter sectoral Coordination for zoonotic disease

Carbon-based nanostructure to remove heavy metals from water Context: Recently a carbon-based nanostructure has been created by researchers at IIT Bombay to remove heavy metals such as arsenic, chromium, cadmium and mercury from wastewater with very high efficiency.

About the experiment: • Marigold carbon-based nanostructure is obtained through a single-step process of chemical vapour deposition followed by removing the silica template. • The carbon-based nanostructure that the team fabricated shows 80-90% adsorption efficiency for all the four heavy metals studied.

How does it purify water? • When the water containing the heavy metals comes in contact with the nanostructure, the majority of adsorption first takes place in the micropores. • Since the heavy metals chemically react and bind to the surface of the nanostructure, they do not leach back into the water. They can be recovered by treating the nanostructure with mild acid (hydrochloric acid and nitric acid).

Features of the nano structure: • Very high adsorption efficiency: its hydrophilic [water-loving nature] nature that allows for extensive and rapid interaction between the heavy metal-containing water and the carbon nanostructure. • Unlike activated carbon, the surface area of nanostructure is easily accessible for heavy metals. • No electricity is required for the nanostructure to remove heavy metals from water as it allows for gravity-driven purification of the water. • The nanostructures can be recycled and reused multiple times. • The carbon nanostructure is able to absorb the heavy metals in the wide range of pH conditions — pH 2 to 13.

Nanostructures

Nanostructures are structures that range between 1 nm (molecular scale) and 100 nm in at least one dimension. Most are synthetic and can be engineered to a wide range of physical properties.

Uses: Nanocomposite carbon-based substrates are a large group of materials promising for medicine and various biotechnologies, for hard tissue implantation, constructing biosensors and biostimulators or micropatterned surfaces for creation of cell microarrays for advanced genomics and proteomics.

Absorption vs. Adsorption

Absorption is the process in which a fluid is dissolved by a liquid or a solid (absorbent). Adsorption is the process in which atoms, ions or molecules from a substance (it could be gas, liquid or dissolved solid) adhere to a surface of the adsorbent.

About heavy metals

The term heavy metal refers to any metallic chemical element that has a relatively high density and is toxic or poisonous at low concentrations. Examples of heavy metals include mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), thallium (Tl), and lead (Pb).

Brahma - Brain Template

Context: Scientists at the Neuroimaging and Neuro Spectroscopy Laboratory (NINS) of the National Brain Research Center (NBRC), Manesar, Haryana, have developed Brahma, which will show intrinsic details about the anatomy of the Indian brain.

About • Brain template is a gross representation from various brain images to understand brain functionality in diseased conditions. • Brahma will be a crucial guide for Indian brain scientists as doctors have so far relied solely on US and Canadian brain templates for anatomical details for surgery and treatment of Indian patients. • Brahma can be used for research and later can be validated for clinical use for surgical procedure. This template will be available for academic use free of charge. • The development of the Indian brain template will be helpful to achieve a more accurate and precise allocation of brain regions in neurosurgery. • It uses the brain’s stress levels and pH for early identification of brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression and schizophrenia.

Source-BrainMadeSimple

Herbicide pollution to be Detected by Carbon Dots

Context: Researchers from Assam have made use of the commonly found invasive plant water hyacinth to produce carbon nanoparticles for detecting a commonly used herbicide Pretilachlor.

Working of the carbon dots:

• It is based on the mechanism of Fluorescence enhancement:Electron transfer happens between the dot and the herbicide which enables fluorescence enhancement. • Carbon dots were able to give a green fluorescence under UV light due to the presence of extremely small oxygen functional groups on the surface of the dots. • It was found to be selective and extremely sensitive for detection of the herbicide Pretilachlor seen from the increment in the intensity of fluorescence.

Why was water hyacinth chosen? • Common water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)is an aquatic plant native to the Amazon basin and is often a highly aggressive invasive species outside its native range. • Due to its ready availability, every water body in Assam is infested with water hyacinth and hence was a cheap option to explore.

About Pretilachlor

It is a Synthetic selective herbicide and is used to control annual grasses, broad-leaved weeds and sedges in rice and works by inhibiting cell division.

Carbon Dots

• Nanoparticles of less than 10 nanometer is called dots or nano-dots. • They are able to give green fluorescence under UV light.

Revival of Penicillin Context: In a bid to fight drug resistance and tackle rheumatic heart disease, the Government of India is planning a revival of penicillin.

About Penicillin

• Penicillin, discovered in 1928 by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming, is one of the oldest antibiotics and in many western countries still remains the first antibiotic. Not many organisms have developed resistance to it yet. • In India it has almost gone out of the market because of price control. The prices were kept so low that manufacturers stopped making the drug. • The government is now planning to procure penicillin centrally for three years and give it to all children between 5-15 years who have a sore throat, at least once. • The drug will be dispensed through primary health centres or administered by ASHAs. • Government is looking at a plan to deal with rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease load and is trying to revive penicillin availability because it is the cheapest option for rheumatic fever treatment.

Rheumatic Fever

• Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory disease that can develop when strep throat or scarlet fever isn't properly treated. • Rheumatic fever is endemic in India and remains one of the major causes of cardiovascular disease, accounting for nearly 25-45% of acquired heart disease. • It often goes undiagnosed and leads to many maternal deaths at the time of childbirth.

About Superbug

• The term superbug is a nonspecific word that is used to describe any organism that is resistant to at least one or more commonly used antibiotics. • The most common bacteria described as superbugs are the following: ✓ MRSA (Staphylococcus aureus strains resistant to multiple antibiotics) ✓ VRE (Enterococcus species resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin) ✓ PRSP (Streptococcus pneumoniae strains resistant to penicillin) ✓ ESBL (Escherichia coli and similar bacteria that are resistant to a certain category of antibiotics, such as cephalosporins) ✓ CRE (Escherichia coli and similar bacteria that are resistant to the carbapenem antibiotics, which are often used as a last resort for ESBL and other resistant bacteria)

Government Policies to fight antimicrobial resistance

• National Policy for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance 2011. • National Action Plan on AMR resistance 2017-2021. • India has instituted surveillance of the emergence of drug resistance in disease causing microbes in programmes on Tuberculosis, Vector Borne diseases, AIDS, etc. • Since March 2014 a separate Schedule H-1 has been incorporated in Drug and Cosmetic rules to regulate the sale of antimicrobials in the country. • The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) banned the use of antibiotics and several pharmacologically active substances in fisheries.

• The government has also capped the maximum levels of drugs that can be used for growth promotion in meat and meat products.

National Genomic Grid

Context: Government has announced plans for a Genomic grid for India-specific cancer research.

About the National Genomic Grid • The grid to be formed will be in line with the National Cancer Tissue Biobank (NCTB) set up at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. • It will collect samples from cancer patients to study genomic factors influencing cancer and identifying the right treatment modalities for the Indian population. • The grid will have four parts, with the country divided into east, west, north and south. • The initiative will be taken forward based on the standard operating procedures set by IIT Madras and guidance from ICMR. • To take cancer research to the next level and make treatment viable for people of different economic classes. The genomic samples will help researchers to have India-specific studies on cancers.

The National Cancer Tissue Biobank (NCTB)

• It is a state-of-the-art non-profit community based tissue bank. • It is a joint initiative of ✓ Department of Science and Technology (DST) and ✓ Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) • It is the first of its kind facility in India and is aiming to provide researchers with high quality of cancer tissues and the patient data in order to facilitate cancer research that will lead to improvements in cancer diagnosis and treatment. • A panel of scientists and doctors (Steering committee of the biobank) must approve that the project is scientifically worthwhile and ethics committee must approve the project before bio-specimens are provided to researchers. • It has the capacity to stock 50,000 genomic samples from cancer patients, already has samples from 3,000 patients.

About ICMR

• ICMR,New Delhi is the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research. • The Governing Body of the Council is presided over by the Union Health Minister.

• It is assisted in scientific and technical matters by a Scientific Advisory Board comprising eminent experts in different biomedical disciplines.

Salmonella

Context: Few lots of MDH sambar masala were recalled from retail stores in California after tests by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) showed positive for salmonella. Concerns • The WHO says Salmonella can pass through the entire food chain from animal feed, primary production, and all the way to households or food-service establishments and institutions. • Salmonella food poisoning (Salmonellosis) is an illness that can occur if live Salmonella bacteria enters the body. • Individuals who develop salmonellosis may show symptoms such as nausea, diarrhoea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12-72 hours after contracting the infection. • Usually, the illness lasts for 4-7 days, and most people recover without treatment. • The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies Salmonella as one of four key global causes of diarrhoeal diseases.

About Salmonella bacteria

• Salmonella is a rod shaped, gram negative bacterium commonly found in the intestines of humans and animals. • Salmonella bacteria are widely distributed in domestic and wild animals. They are prevalent in food animals such as poultry, pigs, and cattle, as well as in pets, including cats, dogs, birds, and turtles. • The bacteria can attach itself to the cells lining the intestines where they produce toxins and attack the intestinal cells.

E-Cigarettes Context: In a major health and wellness initiative for the country, the Union Cabinet has approved the Promulgation of the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertisement) Ordinance, 2019.

Key features of the ordinance • Banning e-cigarettes: Production, manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale (including online sale), distribution or advertisement (including online advertisement) of e-cigarettes. • Punishments: ✓ Aforesaid activities are cognizable offences punishable with an imprisonment of up to one year or fine up to Rs. 1 lakh or both. 41

✓ Storage of electronic-cigarettes shall also be punishable with an imprisonment up to 6 months or fine up to Rs 50,000 or both. • The Sub-Inspector of Police has been designated as the Authorized Officer to take action under the Ordinance. • The owners of existing stocks of e-cigarettes will have to declare and deposit these stocks at the nearest office of an authorised officer.

Electronic-cigarettes • They are battery-operated devices that produce aerosol by heating a solution containing nicotine, which is the addictive substance in combustible cigarettes. • These include all forms of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, Heat Not Burn Products, e-Hookah and the like devices.

Regulations with respect to Electronic-cigarettes • Unlike traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes do not contain tobacco and therefore are not regulated under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003.

WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC)

• WHO FCT is the first global public health treaty? • It is an evidence-based treaty that reaffirms the right of all people to the highest standard of health. • It aims to tackle some of the causes of that epidemic, including complex factors with cross-border effects, such as trade liberalization and direct foreign investment, tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship beyond national borders, and illicit trade in tobacco products. • Parties to the WHO FCTC: 181 (Last Party: Mozambique) • India is a signatory to the convention. • The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the governing body of the WHO FCTC and is comprised of all Parties to the Convention.

Vaccine-derived polio virus (VDPV) Context: Though, India is a wild, poliovirus, disease-free country now. But, the cases of Vaccine Derived Polio Virus (VDPV) disease can be seen.

About VPDV • In VDPV, the source of the virus is the vaccine itself. • The oral polio vaccine called polio drops, which India deployed extensively to fight against polio, contain a live, attenuated or weakened polio virus.

• When a child is vaccinated, the weakened vaccine-virus replicates in the intestine and enters into the bloodstream, triggering a protective immune response in the child. • Like wild poliovirus, the child excretes the vaccine-virus for a period of six to eight weeks. • Importantly, as it is excreted, some of the vaccine-virus may no longer be the same as the original vaccine-virus as it gets genetically altered during replication. • In areas of inadequate sanitation, this excreted vaccine-virus can quickly spread in the community and infect children with low immunity.

Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) Vs Oral Polio Vaccine(OPV)

IPV OPV

IPV given through an injection contains OPV has its strong advocates who believe that inactivated virus, considered to be safer the than OPV that contains live virus.

a) Vaccine is best suited for countries such as WHO has been advocating IPV over India due to its low cost, high efficacy and OPV as part of its global endgame strategy ease of administering. on polio eradication? b) The safety concerns are overstated compared to the benefits of the vaccine.

About Polio

Causes Poliomyelitis or polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus.

Symptoms Polio invades the nervous system, and causes paralysis, medically known as an acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), which is characterised by sudden muscle weakness and pain in the limbs.

Transmission The disease is transmitted from person to person, mainly through the faecal-oral route, affecting children under five years of age.

Scenario in In the absence of wild polio virus (WPV) transmission, India was declared a India polio-free country in March 2014, after years of relentless vaccination.

IT and Computer

Quantum Supremacy

Context: A draft research paper recently claimed that Google researchers have achieved a long- sought-after goal in physics called “quantum supremacy”.

About quantum supremacy • Quantum supremacy refers to a quantum computer solving a problem that cannot be expected of a classical computer in a normal lifetime. This relates to the speed at which a quantum computer performs. • The phrase “quantum supremacy” was coined in 2011 by John Preskill. • According to reports, the quantum processor took 200 seconds to perform a calculation that the world’s fastest supercomputer, Summit, would have taken 10,000 years to accomplish.

What is quantum computing? 1. Quantum computing is the area of study focused on developing computer technology based on the principles of quantum mechanics, which deals with the behavior of particles at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. 2. At that tiny scale, many rules of classical physics cease to apply, and the unique rules of quantum physics come into play. 3. Quantum Computers encode information as quantum bits, or qubits, which can exist in superposition. 4. Qubits represent atoms, ions, photons or electrons and their respective control devices that are working together to act as computer memory and a processor. 5. Because a quantum computer can contain these multiple states simultaneously, it has the potential to be millions of times more powerful than today's most powerful supercomputers.

Traditional computer Quantum computer

It processes information in a It uses logical units called quantum bits, or qubits, that can binary format, called bits, which be put into a quantum state where they can simultaneously can represent either a 0 or 1. represent both 0 and 1

Bits in a classical computer all The status of one qubit effects the status of all the other operate independently from qubits in the system, so they can all work together to one another achieve a solution

Outputs the same answer to a Output of a quantum computer is probabilistic. problem every time you run a calculation That means it does not always produce the same answer. So to use a quantum computer, you have to run a calculation through the system thousands or even millions of times, and the array of outputs converge around the answer that is most likely to be correct.

Applications • It will be able to solve a vast array of complex problems that lie beyond the abilities of today's most advanced supercomputers. • Among the most anticipated uses of quantum computers is the ability to create new chemicals, like catalysts for producing nitrogen-based fertilizers or for use in cells in higher-powered batteries. • Quantum computing could also be used to crack most commonly used forms of digital encryption. • It may one day also be used to streamline logistics and delivery operations, as well as speeding up machine learning applications.

Quantum computing and India • There are no quantum computers in India yet. • In 2018, the Department of Science & Technology unveiled a programme called Quantum- Enabled Science & Technology (QuST) to accelerate research on Quantum computing.

Google to Set Up AI Research Lab in Bengaluru Context: Google has announced the setting up of an AI research lab in Bengaluru that will work on advancing artificial intelligence-related research with an aim to solve problems in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture and education.

More about the news: Google’s Bengaluru based AI research lab will focus on two things. • Firstly, it will focus on the advancement of Computer Science research in India, wherein it will focus on Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Languages, Speech, Systems, and other related areas. • Secondly, it will focus on applying this research to tackle big problems in areas pertaining to healthcare, agriculture, and education. • The lab will also focus on making apps and services that will focus on helping millions of people in the country.

India centric initiatives of Google

Name About

BOLO App Speech-based reading-tutor app called Bolo for Android-based smartphones to help children in rural India with their reading skills

Rail Wi-Fi project RailTel, a PSU under the Ministry of Railways, had partnered with Google for five years to provide free WiFi in 415 A1, A, C category stations.

Flood forecasting The Flood Forecasting Initiative was started with a pilot program in Patna. initiative Now, the company is expanding it to cover more areas.

Internet Saathi It is a digital literacy initiative of Google India and Tata Trusts, aimed programme at empowering women in rural India in 2.6 lakh villages across the country.

StrandHogg Context: The Union Home Ministry recently sent an alert to all States warning them about the vulnerability in the Android operating system to a bug named StrandHogg.

More about the news: • Malicious apps exploiting the vulnerability did not come directly through Google Play Store. • Instead they were installed through dropper apps distributed on Google Play. • Dropper apps either have or pretend to have the functionality of popular apps so it can bypass Google Play Protect.

Method of working of StrandHogg • When a user launches an app, an attacker can condition the system to display to the user a spoofed User Interface (UI) under the attacker's control instead of the real UI from the original app, without the user’s awareness. • This makes all apps on the user’s device vulnerable, including the privileged system apps. • It can allow the attacker to listen to microphone, steal login credentials, take photos using camera, read SMS and even access photos.

Edge Computing Context: By 2025, says the global research and advisory firm Gartner, companies will generate and process more than 75% of their data outside of traditional centralised data centres — that is, at the “edge” of the cloud.

What is edge computing? • It enables data to be analysed, processed, and transferred at the edge of a network. • The idea is to analyse data locally, closer to where it is stored, in real-time without latency, rather than send it far away to a centralised data centre.

Source-Winsystems

Difference between edge computing and cloud computing • The basic difference between edge computing and cloud computing lies in where the data processing takes place. • Currently existing Internet of Things (IoT) systems perform all of their computations in the cloud using data centres. • On the other hand,Edge computing essentially manages the massive amounts of data generated by IoT devices by storing and processing data locally. • The data doesn’t need to be sent over a network as soon as it processed; only important data is sent. • An edge computing network reduces the amount of data that travels over the network.

Energy

Head on Generation (HOG) Context: Railway Ministry has announced that it would be upgrading all existing Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches with the Head on Generation (HOG) technology, a move that would cause the trains to become more cost-efficient and less polluting.

Background- • Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches were originally designed to operate on the End on Generation (EOG) principle. • The generator cars are attached to either end of the train, giving the system End On Generation name. • During April 2018 to 5th November 2019, 436 have been converted into HOG compliant trains.

Difference Between HOG technology and EOG Technology

End on Generation (EOG) system Head on Generation (HOG)

• The train’s ‘hotel load’ (the load of air • The system runs the train’s ‘hotel load’ conditioning, lights, fans, and pantry, by drawing electricity from the etc.) is provided with electricity from overhead electric lines through the two large diesel generator sets, which pantograph. supply 3-phase power at 750 Volts 50 Hz to the entire length of the train.

• Each coach picks up the power supply • The power supply from the overhead through a 60 KVA transformer, bringing cable is 750 volts at single-phase, and a down the voltage to 110 volts at which transformer with a winding of 945 kVA level the equipment in the compartment converts it to a 750 Volts 50 Hz output at is run. 3-phase. This energy is then provided to the compartments.

The major advantages of HOG system include: • Reduction in noise- With the noise-emitting generator sets gone, noise pollution dropped from 100dB noise to noise less, • Free of air pollution- Significant reduction of CO2 (over 2500Ton) & NOX (over 10Ton) emissions till now.

• They only have one emergency generator car attached, instead of two regular generator cars because the HOG-fitted trains do not require power from diesel generators at all. • Reduced Diesel Consumption leading to huge savings in operational costs to the tune of over Rs.1100 crores per annum.Cost savings - EOG Power Rs 22/unit, HOG Power Rs 6/unit. • The extra space created is used for an LSLRD (LHB Second Luggage, Guard & Divyaang Compartment) and hence more passengers can be accommodated. • According to the Indian Railways, once all LHB trains get the new system, it would be saving INR 1390 crores every year. The increased cost efficiency, as per the Ministry, is because of the low price per unit of electricity in the HOG system @ INR 6/unit, as compared to the price of INR 22/unit in the EOG system. • The reduction in emissions could also help the Railways accrue carbon credits, and trade them on the international market.

Special winter-grade diesel Context: The first batch of special winter-grade diesel has been recently flagged off from Panipat Refinery to ladakh.

About the fuel • It is the fuel designed to withstand extremely low temperatures during the winter months. • It is developed by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) • The new fuel designed also complies with BS-VI emission norms

Need for Special Fuel: • Fuel is developed for motorists as they face the problem of freezing diesel in their vehicles when winter temperatures reach - 30 deg Celsius in high-altitude sectors like Ladakh, Kargil, Kaza and Keylong. • Regular diesel fuel contains paraffin wax which is added for improving viscosity and lubrication. At low temperatures, the paraffin wax thickens or “gels” and hinders the flow of the fuel in the car engine. • Special types of diesel are thus used at low temperatures that contain additives enabling the fuel to remain fluid in such conditions.

First Indigenous Fuel Cell System

Context: The President of India, unveiled the first Indigenous High Temperature Fuel Cell System

About first Indigenous High Temperature Fuel Cell System of India

Developed by • Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in partnership with Indian industries • It is under India’s flagship program named New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI). • It is under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model

Working and The 5.0 kW fuel cell system generates power in a green manner using mechanism methanol / bio-methane, with heat and water as bi-products for further use.

The Fuel Cells developed are based on High Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane (HTPEM) Technology. • This technology is the core of the fuel cells running above 150 °C. As in classical PEM fuel cells technology • Hydrogen is electrochemically split to proton and electron on anode. • Proton is transported through membrane to cathode while electricity is yielded in an external circuit. • At cathode protons recombine with electrons and react further with Oxygen to water and heat. • The technology can achieve efficiency approaching 90% calculated as combined yield of electricity and heat.

Efficiency It amounts to greater than 70% efficiency, which otherwise may not be possible by other energy sources

• It is most suitable for distributed stationary power applications like; for small offices, commercial units, data centers etc.; where highly reliable power is essential with simultaneous requirement for air- conditioning. Significance • This system will also meet the requirement of efficient, clean and reliable backup power generator for telecom towers, remote locations and strategic applications as well. • This development would replace Diesel Generating (DG) sets and help reduce India’s dependence on crude oil. • It is a unique example of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) among CSIR and Indian industry exemplifying exploiting materials of science developments at CSIR laboratories into practice by Industry.

Fuel-cell system is a thermodynamic device that converts the energy of a chemical reaction directly into electricity and heat, thus producing efficient power with a finite rate.

Fuel Cell distributed power generation • In the field of clean energy, Fuel Cell distributed power generation systems are emerging as a promising alternative to grid power. • The Fuel Cells fit well in India’s mission of replacing diesel with green and alternate fuels. • The development of fuel cell technology is indigenous and carries immense national importance in terms of non-grid energy security.

New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI)

• As a part of a new millennium initiative, the Government mounted this farsighted R&D programme in Public-Private Partnership mode in 2000-01. • The responsibility of conceptualising, evolving and implementing the programme has been assigned to the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR). • It seeks to catalyze innovation centered scientific and technological developments as a vehicle to attain for Indian industry a global leadership position, in selected niche areas. • Users can get details of the programme, procedure, terms and condition for project proposal etc. • Information on Nationally Evolved Projects under NMITLI is also available.

Methane-powered Rocket Engine Context: ISRO is developing two LOx methane engines (liquid oxygen oxidiser and methane fuel) engines at Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Trivandrum.

About the ISRO’s project • Project aims to convert the existing cryogenic engine, which uses liquid hydrogen for fuel, into a LOx methane engine. • The other part of the project is a smaller engine of 3 tonnes thrust, which will feature an electric motor.

About the fuel uses in space missions • ISRO currently prefers to use a fuel called Unsymmetrical Di-Methyl Hydrazine, along with Nitrogen tetroxide for oxidiser, in its liquid fuel (Vikas) engines, which are used in the lower stages of its rockets, PSLV and GSLV. • This fuel, like all hydrazine-based fuels, is highly toxic and cancer-causing. Globally, governments are keen on banning hydrazine.

• Hydrazine fuels are hypergolic, which means they start burning on their own upon coming in contact with oxygen.

Advantages of Methane over hydrazine • Apart from being non-toxic, methane has a higher specific impulse (which means one kg of the gas can life one kg of mass for a longer time), • It is easy to store, does not leave a residue upon burning, less bulky, and, importantly, can be synthesised up in space. • Methane can be synthesised with water and carbon dioxide in space. For example, Mars has both water on its land and water in its atmosphere, fuel for a return journey from Mars can be produced right there with these.

About Cryogenic rocket stage

• This stage is more efficient and provides more thrust for every kilogram of propellant it burns compared to solid and earth-storable liquid propellant rocket stages. • Cryogenic stage is technically a very complex system compared to solid or earth-storable liquid propellant stages due to its use of propellants at extremely low temperatures and the associated thermal and structural problems. • Cryogenic engines make use of Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) as propellants which liquefy at -183 deg C and -253 deg C respectively. • GSLV with indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage has enabled the launching up to 2 tonne class of communication satellites. The next variant of GSLV is GSLV Mk III, with indigenous high thrust cryogenic engine and stage, having the capability of launching 4 tonne class of communication satellites.

Meanwhile, a few other rocket fuels have emerged on the horizon including Ammonium di Nitramide in Europe and Hydroxyl Ammonium Nitrate in the US.

Core catcher installed at Kudankulam

Context: The Moscow-based Rosatom State Corporation Engineering Division had installed a core melt localisation device (CMLD) or “core catcher” at Unit 3 of Tamil Nadu’s Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP).

About Core Catcher • The device is designed to localise and cool the molten core material in case of a meltdown accident.

• The core catcher is filled with a ceramic mixture also including ferric oxide and aluminium oxide, called ‘sacrificial material’. • The sacrificial material prevents the corium from trickling through and also acts as a cooling mechanism. • Molten core material, or corium, is lava-like material that gets formed in the core of a nuclear reactor in the event of a meltdown accident. • The core catcher device is installed at the bottom of the nuclear station’s protective shell, and is designed to save the latter as well as exude radioactive emission in the environment in case of a serious accident.

Significance of the Core Catcher • The device has improved seismic resistance, hydro-dynamic and shock strength as well as equipped with flood protection and simplified installation and assembly technology.

Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP),Tamil Nadu

• Under the KKNPP project, it was planned to set up six nuclear power plants each of 1,000 MW, in phases with Pressurized Water Reactor technology. • The project is being implemented in technical collaboration with Russia. • Its core containing the nuclear fuel is located inside a pressure vessel. • Each Unit of KKNPP i.e. Unit I (1,000 MW) and Unit II (1,000 MW) consists of four Primary Coolant System loops transferring the heat energy from the reactor to the Steam Generators (SGs).

Source-DTE

Miscellaneous

Train the trainer (TTT)program in Artificial Intelligence

Agreement The Directorate General of Training (DGT) division of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, has signed an agreement with IBM about the same.

Enabling the trainers with basic approach, workflow and application of AI that they can apply in their training modules.

Aim IBM aims at training 10,000 faculty members from ITIs across the country and the program will be executed over a period of one year with 14 trainers across 7 locations with over 200 workshops.

Guidelines for Evaluation of Nanopharmaceuticals in India

Context: The Union government recently released Guidelines for Evaluation of Nanopharmaceuticals in India to provide transparent regulatory pathways for nanopharmaceuticals in India, ensuring“Affordable Health Care for All”.

About the guidelines • The Guidelines are developed by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), Ministry of Health. • They apply to the nanopharmaceuticals in the form of finished formulation as well as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) of a new molecule or an already approved molecule with altered nanoscale dimensions intended to be used for treatment or prevention of diseases.

Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO)

About • It is the Central Drug Authority for discharging functions assigned to the Central Government under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.

• CDSCO has six zonal offices, four sub-zonal offices, 13 port offices and seven laboratories under its control.

1. Regulatory control over the import of drugs 2. Approval of new drugs and clinical trials Functions 3. Meetings of Drugs Consultative Committee (DCC) and Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB), 4. Approval of certain licenses as Central License Approving Authority is exercised by the CDSCO headquarters.

Nano pharmaceuticals

• They are a relatively new class of therapeutic-containing nanomaterials that often have unique " nano properties" (physicochemical properties) due to their ✓ Small size (compared with their bulk-phase counterparts) ✓ A high surface-to-volume ratio • And the possibility of modulating their properties.

The nanomaterial is generally defined as material having particle size in the range of 1 to 100 nm in at least one dimension.

Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API)

• It is the term used to refer to the biologically active component of a drug product (e.g. tablet, capsule). • Drug products are usually composed of several components. • The aforementioned API is the primary ingredient. • Other ingredients are commonly known as "excipients" and these substances are always required to be biologically safe, often making up a variable fraction of the drug product.

Nobel Prizes,2019

Field Awardees For

Physiology William G. Kaelin, Sir Peter J. Discovery of how cells sense and adapt to Ratcliffe, and Gregg L. Semenza oxygen availability.

1.Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz Discovering for the first time a planet outside our solar system orbiting a Sun-like Physics star.

2.James Peebles Contribution to physical cosmology

Chemistry John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Working towards the development of Whittingham and Akira Yoshino practical lithium-ion batteries.

Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine Context: This year, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three scientists for their discovery of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability. They have uncovered the genetic mechanisms that allow cells to respond to varying levels of oxygen.

Understanding of how oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and physiological function • Oxygen is used by all cells to convert food to useful energy. While oxygen is essential for the survival of cells, excess or too little oxygen can lead to adverse health consequences. • Oxygen supply temporarily reduces in muscles during intense exercise and under such conditions the cells adapt their metabolism to low oxygen levels. • The rate at which we respire depends on the amount of oxygen being carried in the blood. • Specialised cells present next to large blood vessels in the neck sense the blood oxygen level and alert the brain to increase the rate of respiration when the oxygen level in the blood goes down. This discovery won a Nobel Prize in 1938. • At the beginning of the last century, scientists knew that specialised cells present in the kidneys make and release a hormone called erythropoietin. • When oxygen level is low, as in high altitudes, more of this hormone is produced and released, leading to increased production of red blood cells in the bone marrow — helping the body adapt to high altitudes.

Main contributions of 2019’s winners Both Prof. Semenza and Sir Ratcliffe independently studied how the erythropoietin gene is regulated by varying oxygen levels.

• They found that the oxygen-sensing mechanism is not restricted to kidneys where the erythropoietin is produced but by diverse cells in tissues other than the kidney. • Prof. Semenza identified a pair of genes that express two proteins. When the oxygen level is low, one of the proteins (HIF-1alpha) turns on certain genes, including the erythropoietin gene, to increase the production of erythropoietin. • The hormone, in turn, increases the oxygen availability by boosting the production of red blood cells. • The function of the HIF-1alpha protein, which turns on the genes to produce more erythropoietin, is blocked and is rapidly degraded when the oxygen level is normal but remains intact when oxygen level is low. This ensures that excess red blood cells are not produced when the oxygen level is normal.

Prof. Kaelin Jr. who was studying an inherited syndrome called von Hippel-Lindau’s disease (VHL disease) found that people had an increased risk of cancer when they inherited VHL mutations. He found the VHL gene seemed to be involved in how cells respond to oxygen.

Athletes use Erythropoietin • Athletes have been found to use erythropoietin, synthetic oxygen carriers and blood transfusions for blood doping. • Each of the three substances or methods is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). • While the use of erythropoietin in people who are anaemic due to chronic kidney disease helps in increasing the oxygen level in the blood, the use of the hormone by normal, healthy people can lead to serious health risks. • In the case of healthy people who have a normal red blood cell count, the use of external erythropoietin is highly likely to make the blood thick leading to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and cerebral or pulmonary embolism (clot that blocks the flow of blood).

Note: Cancers are known to hijack the oxygen-regulation machinery to stimulate blood vessel formation and also re-programme the metabolism in order to adapt to low oxygen conditions.

Nobel Prize in Physics Context: Nobel Prize in Physics has been conferred to three people: Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for discovering for the first time a planet outside our solar system orbiting a Sun-like star, the other half would go to James Peebles, for his contribution to physical cosmology.

James Peebles Contributions • He realised that measuring the CMB’s temperature could provide information about how much matter had been created in the Big Bang.

o He also saw that the release of this light played a role in how matter could form clumps creating what we now see as galaxies. ✓ Peebles’ role in understanding Dark matter ✓ Before Peebles intervened, the missing mass was attributed to neutrinos. Peebles instead said this is due to a hitherto unknown type of “dark” matter particles. ✓ However, while they could “see” a portion of this mass, a large part of it could not be seen. Hence the mass missing from view was named “dark” matter.

Background info

Cosmic Microwave Background(CMB) • About 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe expanded and cooled to a few thousand degrees Celsius. This caused it to become transparent, allowing light to pass through it. • This ancient afterglow of the Big Bang, the remnants of which still can be observed, is known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB). • The CMB consists of light in the microwave range because the expansion of the universe stretches the light so much. • Microwave radiation is invisible light. The CMB was detected first in 1964, winning for its discoverers a Nobel Prize in 1978.

Dark Matter • In 1998, it was discovered that the universe is expanding and that this expansion was gaining speed or accelerating. There had to be an “invisible” energy that was driving this. • Calculations showed that this dark energy so called because it did not interact with the observed mass, makes up about 70% of the universe. • By measuring the speeds of rotating galaxies, scientists were able to see that a lot of mass needed to be there that would hold the galaxies together with the strength of their gravitational attraction. • Even though this matter is all around us, close as well as far away, we only feel it through its gravity, but we cannot see it through other interactions. • This is because it does not interact with light.

Kepler Space Telescope

• This Mission of NASA is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone

• It will determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy that might have such planets.

Nobel Prize for Chemistry Context: The 2019 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded for working towards the development of practical lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries & Whittingham’s Contribution • Since the early 19th century, chemical batteries have been around. They consist of two electrodes between which electrons flow and generate a current. ✓ The challenge of such batteries is to choose appropriate electrodes and electrolyte, which mediates the current, and generate sufficient current safely at room temperature without occupying too much space. ✓ Lead acid batteries still used in cars to start engines and power headlights and power windows are too bulky to practically function as car engines. ✓ Exxon, which was worried about depleting oil stocks, commissioned top researchers to find alternatives to fossil fuels. Whittingham, studied solid materials whose atoms had spaces between them. ✓ Fitting positively charged ions in them, a process called intercalation changed their properties and Whittingham found that potassium ions when intercalated in titanium made for an extremely energy-dense material. Lithium is also a light element and useful as an electrode, he found. ✓ In a battery, electrons should flow from the negative electrode - the anode to the positive - the cathode. Therefore, the anode should contain a material that easily gives up its electrons and lithium releases electrons willingly. This made for an ideal battery.

About lithium-ion batteries

• Although slightly lower in energy density than lithium metal, lithium-ion is safe, provided certain precautions are met when charging and discharging. • In 1991, the Sony Corporation commercialized the first lithium-ion battery. Other manufacturers followed suit. • These batteries are the edifice of the wireless technology revolution that made possible portable compact disc players, digital wrist watches, laptops and mobile phones of today. • It is also seen as important to a fossil-free future of electric cars that governments envisage to address climate change.

Why are they important? 1. The energy density of lithium-ion is typically twice that of the standard nickel- cadmium.

2. The load characteristics are reasonably good and behave similarly to nickel-cadmium in terms of discharge. 3. The high cell voltage of 3.6 volts allows battery pack designs with only one cell. 4. Lithium-ion is a low maintenance battery, an advantage that most other chemistries cannot claim. 5. There is no memory and no scheduled cycling is required to prolong the battery’s life. 6. In addition, the self-discharge is less than half compared to nickel-cadmium, making lithium-ion well suited for modern fuel gauge applications. 7. lithium-ion cells cause little harm when disposed.

Limitations: 1. It is fragile and requires a protection circuit to maintain safe operation. 2. Aging is a concern with most lithium-ion batteries. 3. Some capacity deterioration is noticeable after one year, whether the battery is in use or not. 4. Expensive to manufacture – about 40 percent higher in cost than nickel-cadmium. 5. Not fully mature – metals and chemicals are changing on a continuing basis.

About Lithium: • It is a rare and the lightest known metal. • Lithium makes up a mere 0.0007 percent of the Earth's crust. • symbol Li and atomic number 3. • Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly reactive and flammable and must be stored in mineral oil. • Lithium has the greatest electrochemical potential and provides the largest energy density for weight.

Application of Lithium: • It's used in the manufacture of aircraft and in certain batteries. • It's also used in mental health: Lithium carbonate is a common treatment of the bipolar disorder, helping to stabilize wild mood swings caused by the illness. • Lithium-ion batteries are the key to lightweight, rechargeable power for laptops, phones, and other digital devices.

Contributions of Goodenough and Yoshino • Goodenough had set to work on improving Whittingham’s battery. He eventually found that the cathode could have a higher potential if it was built using a metal oxide instead of a metal sulphide. • The challenge for Goodenough and his colleagues was to find a metal oxide that produced a high voltage when it intercalated lithium ions, but which did not collapse when the ions were removed. • Eventually they chanced upon a battery with lithium cobalt oxide in the cathode, which was almost twice as powerful as Whittingham’s battery. 62

• Goodenough’s major insight was that batteries did not have to be manufactured in their charged state, as had been done previously. Instead, they could be charged afterwards.

National Milk Safety and Quality Survey 2018

Released Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) by

• It recorded data from 6,432 samples of milk, out of which 40.5% were processed samples and 59.5% were raw milk samples, taken from towns with populations of 50,000-plus. • The samples were analysed for fat and SNF (solids not fat), 13 adulterants Data and three contaminants. analysis • This was the first time milk in India was tested for aflatoxin M1, which comes into contact with milk through feed and fodder, not regulated in the country at present.

• In 368 samples, the survey found residues of aflatoxin M1 (a type of mycotoxin that can cause disease and death) beyond permissible levels. It is found to be more prevalent in processed rather than raw milk. • Apart from the Aflatoxin, samples had traces of antibiotics but within Findings of permissible limits. the report • Maltodextrin, a food additive, was also found in 156 out of 6,432 samples. Although it is not lethal, its presence increases the levels of fat and Solids- not-Fat (SNF).

Milk is approximately 87 percent water and 13 percent solids. The solids portion of milk contains approximately 3.7 percent fat and 9 percent solids- not-fat. Milkfat carries the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. The solids-not- fat portion consists of protein (primarily casein and lactalbumin), carbohydrates (primarily lactose), and minerals (including calcium and phosphorus).

• States with the highest levels of residues of this contaminant were Tamil Nadu (88 of 551 samples), followed by Delhi (38 of 262) and Kerala (37 of 187). • Most of the residues were found in processed milk.

About Aflatoxins

• Aflatoxins are toxins produced by certain fungi which are generally found in agricultural crops like maize, peanuts, cotton seed and others. • They are carcinogenic in nature. • Consumption of food containing aflatoxin concentrations of one milligram/kilogram or higher has been suspected to cause aflatoxicosis, the prognosis of which consists of acute liver failure, jaundice, lethargy and nausea, eventually leading to death.

About FSSAI

• It has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. • Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India is the Administrative Ministry for the implementation of FSSAI. • The adulteration of food is a subject in the Concurrent List of the Constitution. • FSSAI has been mandated by the FSS Act, 2006 for performing the following functions: ✓ Framing of Regulations to lay down the Standards and guidelines in relation to articles of food and specifying an appropriate system of enforcing various standards thus notified. ✓ Laying down mechanisms and guidelines for accreditation of certification bodies engaged in certification of food safety management system for food businesses. ✓ To provide scientific advice and technical support to the Central Government and State Governments. ✓ Collect and collate data regarding food consumption and the introduction of the rapid alert system. ✓ Creating an information network across the country so that the public, consumers, Panchayats etc receive rapid, reliable and objective information about food safety and issues of concern. ✓ Provide training programs for persons ✓ Contribute to the development of international technical standards for food, sanitary and phytosanitary standards. ✓ Promote general awareness about food safety and food standards.

Goldschmidtite

Context: • A new, curious mineral has been discovered inside a diamond unearthed from a mine in South Africa. • The mineral has been named goldschmidtite, after Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, the Norwegian scientist which is acknowledged as the founder of modern geochemistry. 64

Significance of the discovery • Goldschmidtite has an unusual chemical signature for a mineral from Earth’s mantle. • Though the mantle makes up about 80% of the Earth’s volume, very little is known about it. Reaching the mantle is not easy; it is about 2,900 km thick and no attempt to drill into it has been successful. • Diamonds hold clues while unravelling the mystery of mantle as they are found up to 160 km beneath the surface, in the upper mantle. • Diamonds that are unearthed were brought up closer to the surface, probably as a result of violent volcanic eruptions when the Earth was hotter. • The discovery gives us a snapshot of fluid processes that affect the deep roots of continents during diamond formation.

Source-National Geographic

CLRI’s Biocatalyst

Context: A novel amylase-based biocatalyst has been developed by researchers at the Central Leather Research Institute (CSIR-CLRI), Chennai. It was created using Genetic Engineering techniques.

Significance of this finding • Pre-tanning process generates 60-70% of total pollution during processing. By drastically cutting the time taken to process the skin at the pre-tanning stage, it helps in processing leather in an environment-friendly way. • When the biocatalyst is used, the amount of effluent discharge is considerably cut as there is threefold reduction in water usage. • Also, no chemicals are used, this will aid in reducing the chemical oxygen demand by about 35% while the total solid effluent load reduces by over 50%. • It makes the process of opening the fibres quicker as it takes just 10 minutes to open the fibres when the biocatalyst is used compared with traditional enzymes that take three-four hours. • It is sufficient to use less amount of chromium to increase the stability of the collagen and the quality of the finished leather also becomes superior. • About 21% of the chromium used gets absorbed by the skin, which is far more than when other enzymes or chemical-based methods are used, leading to reduced chromium in the effluent discharge. • The biocatalyst is stable even at a high temperature of 90 degree C and pH 10 and so up to 95% of the enzyme can be recovered after a single process and reused.

About CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research)

Formation It was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the largest research and development organisation in India.

• CSIR-UGC National Eligibility Test for JRF and Eligibility for Lectureship. Schemes • CSIR has been supporting a large number of research fellows/associates initiated by for pursuing their doctoral and postdoctoral research in universities and CSIR R&D institutions across the country. • CSIR’s ‘Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prize for Science and Technology’, instituted in 1957 is the most coveted and revered prize in science and technology in the country.

New Term ‘Yank’ Proposed

Context: Biologists and biomedical engineers are proposing to define the term “yank” for changes in force overtime, something that our muscles and nerves can feel and respond to.

Need for the new term • Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity (or speed) with respect to time. In other words, acceleration is the time derivative of speed or velocity. And the time derivative of acceleration is “jerk”. • The time derivative after jerk is described by the words, “snap”, “crackle” and “pop” for each successive derivative. • Likewise, Force is a push or pull upon an object resulting from the object’s interaction with another object. Force is measured in units of mass times acceleration. • But the problem is that unlike velocity and acceleration, time derivatives for force have never been defined till now. That is why a new term ‘Yank’ has been proposed to fill the empty spot.

Probable benefits of defining ‘Yank’ • ‘Yank’ could be useful in understanding spasticity, a common muscle impairment in multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, stroke, and cerebral palsy. • Yank can also prove to be useful in the study of activities like jumping, sprinting, capturing prey and maintaining balance, etc. • It is similarly useful in analyzing the behavior of muscles and tendons, sensory feedback and spinal reflexes, all the way down to the contributions of individual cells.

Joint Part Function Role

Cartilage It buffers bones at the point where they Cushions the joint meet

Tendons It attaches bones to muscle Gives joint flexibility and stability

Ligaments It attaches bones to bones Gives joint stability

Scientific Social Responsibility

Context: Department of Science and Technology (DST) has released a draft of its proposed Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) policy recently.

Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) Policy • Objectives: ✓ The main objective of SSR policy is to harness the voluntary potential that is latent in the country’s scientific community to strengthen science and society linkages so as to make the S & T ecosystem vibrant. 67

• Salient features ✓ Individual scientists or knowledge workers will be required to devote at least 10 person-days of SSR per year for exchanging scientific knowledge to society. ✓ It also recognizes the need to provide incentives for outreach activities with necessary budgetary support. ✓ It has also been proposed to give credit to knowledge workers/scientists for individual SSR activities in their annual performance appraisal and evaluation. ✓ No institution would be allowed to outsource or sub-contract their SSR activities and projects. ✓ A central agency will be established at DST to implement the SSR. ✓ For implementation of the policy, a national portal will be developed up to capture societal needs requiring scientific interventions and as a platform for implementers and for reporting SSR activities. ✓ India is going to be possibly the first country in the world to implement a Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) Policy on the lines of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) The ethical obligation of knowledge workers in all fields of science and technology to voluntarily contribute their knowledge and resources to the widest spectrum of stakeholders in society, in a spirit of service and conscious reciprocity.

Scientific and Useful Profound Research Advancement (SUPRA)

Developed SERB by

To explore new scientific breakthroughs, with long-term impact on our fundamental scientific understanding, and offer disruptive technologies at the cutting edge. Objective SERB-SUPRA is a scheme beyond normal core grants and purposefully designed for high quality proposals consisting of new hypothesis or challenging existing ones, and provide 'out-of-box' solutions.

Funding Funding will be provided normally for a period of three years, which could be extended to 2 years (5 years total) as assessed by an expert committee.

About Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)

• It is a statutory Body Established through an Act of Parliament: SERB Act 2008 Government of India • Objective: To provide financial assistance to persons engaged in such research, academic institutions, research and development laboratories, industrial concerns and other agencies.

National Broadband Mission The Ministry of Communications

Vision Fast-track growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide, facilitate digital empowerment and inclusion, and provide affordable and universal access to broadband for all.

• Significantly improve the quality of services for mobile and internet. • Develop a Broadband Readiness Index (BRI) to measure the availability of digital communications infrastructure and conducive policy ecosystem within a State/UT. • Creation of a digital fiber map of the Digital Communications network and Objectives infrastructure, including Optical Fiber Cables and Towers, across the country. • Laying of incremental 30 lakhs route km of Optical Fiber Cable and increase in tower density from 0.42 to 1.0 tower per thousand of population by 2024. • The Centre will work with States and UTs for having consistent policies pertaining to expansion of digital infrastructure including for Right of Way (RoW) approvals required for laying of optical fibre cable. • Investment from stakeholders of Rs 7 Lakh Crore including Rs 70,000 crore from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

YUva VIgyani KAryakram(Yuvika)-Young Scientist Programme

Launched ISRO by

Aim To impart basic knowledge on Space Technology, Space Science and Space Applications to the younger ones with the intent of arousing their interest in the emerging areas of Space activities.

Those who have just finished 9th standard and are waiting to join 10th standard will be eligible for the programme. The selection will be based on the 8th Std Eligibility marks.

Other The residential training programme will be of around two weeks duration during Details summer holidays and it is proposed to select 3 students each from each State/ Union Territory to participate in this programme

Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)

Initiated Department of Science and Technology (DST) by

Aim To provide professionally managed services with efficiency, accessibility and transparency of highest order under one roof to service the demands of industry, start-ups and academia.

Details It involves initiating the setting up of a Science and Technology infrastructure facility, which can readily be accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing units, industries and R&D Labs.

In the first phase SATHI facilities are being located at IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kharagpur and BHU- Varanasi.

Deep Ocean Mission

Launched by Ministry of Earth Sciences

Focus of the • Deep-sea mining, mission • Ocean climate change advisory services, • Underwater vehicles and underwater robotics related technologies.

Other India’s exclusive rights to explore polymetallic nodules from seabed in the important Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) have been extended by five years in 2017 details by UN International SeaBed Authority.

International SeaBed Authority HQ:Kingston, Jamaica

• It is an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS)

• Aim:To organize, regulate and control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, an area underlying most of the world's oceans.

INDIA INNOVATION INDEX 2019

Launched by NITI Aayog with Institute for Competitiveness as the knowledge partner

It is calculated as the average of the scores of its two dimensions - Enablers and Performance.

The Enablers are the factors that underpin innovative capacities, grouped in Parameters five pillars: (1) Human Capital, (2) Investment, (3) Knowledge Workers, (4) Business Environment, and (5) Safety and Legal Environment.

The Performance dimension captures benefits that a nation derives from the inputs, divided in two pillars: (6) Knowledge Output and (7) Knowledge Diffusion.

Karnataka is the most innovative major state in India.

Finding of the 2019 report Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana, Haryana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh form the remaining top ten major states respectively.

The top ten major states are majorly concentrated in southern and western India.

Global Cooling Prize

Launched Department of Science & Technology (DST) in partnership with Bureau of by Energy Efficiency (BEE) & MoEF&CC and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), an independent non-profit research institute.

To spur development of a residential cooling solution that has at least five times (5x) less climate impact than today's standard products.

Aim This prize is expected to stimulate innovation in cooling technology that can be accessed by people in India initially and around the world eventually.

Other It is being organized by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under details the Mission Innovation (MI) programme.

Mission Innovation (MI) programme

• It is a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Union • It aims to accelerate global clean energy innovation. • MI identified “Affordable Heating and Cooling of Building Innovation Challenge” as one of the seven innovation challenges. • India agreed to its engagement as MI Member for the Mission Innovation Challenge. • The objective of the MI Challenge #7 is to make low carbon heating and cooling affordable for everyone.