SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS AUGUST 2013

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS AUGUST 2013

• India's first exclusive defence satellite GSAT-7 was successfully launched by European space consortium Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana on 30 August. Indian Navy would be the user of the multi-band home-built communication spacecraft, expected to be operational by September end. By September 14, GSAT-7 is planned to be positioned in its orbital slot of 74 deg East longitude and subsequently the satellite's communication transponders will be switched on. The frequency bands of GSAT-7 will help space-based marine communications. It has coverage over India landmass as well as surrounding seas."It's important from security and surveillance points of view", an ISRO official said. The state-of-the-art satellite carrying payloads operating in UHF, S, C and Ku bands, had a lift-off mass of ,2625 kg and are based on ISRO's 2,500 kg satellite bus with some new technological elements, including the antennae. According to ISRO, GSAT-7 is an advanced communication satellite to provide wide range of service spectrum from low bit rate voice to high bit rate data communication. Its payload is designed to provide communication capabilities to users over a wide oceanic region including the Indian land-mass.
  
• Giving a major boost to strategic airlift capabilities of the Air Force, Defence Minister A.K. Antony will formally induct the 75-80 tone C-17 heavy-lift transport aircraft into service on September 2 at the Hindon Air Base. The American C-17, with a capability to carry around 80 tones of load and around 150 fully geared troops, will replace the Russian Il-76 as the biggest aircraft in the IAF inventory till now. The Il-76 had the capability to carry loads up to around 40 tones. The IAF has placed orders with the US for ten such aircraft under the deal signed in 2011 and three of them have already been delivered. The US Air Force will complete the delivery of all the 10 aircraft by the end of next year. The aircraft is expected to enhance the operational potential of the IAF with its payload carriage and performance capability and would augment the strategic reach during disaster relief or any similar missions. In recent times, the IAF has shifted its dependence from the Russian-origin aircraft towards the American ones with the induction of the C-17 and the C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft. The IAF operates six C-130Js and has plans of procuring six more for operations on small and unpaved runways alongside routine transport missions. The IAF also has the Russian Antonov-32 in its inventory.
  
• Scientists have confirmed the discovery of a new super-heavy element - with atomic number 115 - and it may soon join the periodic table. An international team of researchers conducted an experiment at the GSI research facility in Germany to confirm earlier measurements by research groups in Russia. The new super-heavy element is yet to be named.A committee comprising members of the international unions of pure and applied physics and chemistry will review the findings to decide whether further experiments are needed before the element is acknowledged. Besides the observations of the new chemical element, the researchers also gained deeper insight into the structure and properties of super-heavy atomic nuclei.
  
• Bharat Biotech, on26 August, launched a fourth-generation conjugate vaccine for immunization of children and adults from typhoid fever. The vaccine, Typbar-TCV, was launched by Director-General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) Christian Locqu in Hyderabad, in the presence of Bharat Biotech Chairman and Managing Director Krishna M. Ella. The vaccine will be made available in the market in two weeks. Acknowledging the efforts of his scientists, Mr. Ella said: “We hope this vaccine will reach millions of people and help reduce the burden of the devastating disease among infants and children.” He claimed that no other conjugate vaccine against typhoid was now available in the market across the world.
  
• Thanks to the decades-long struggle by the Jala Sadhana Samiti and fluorosis victims in Nalgonda district in Andhra Pradesh, the much-awaited fluoride research centre would be a reality soon. The concerted efforts have fructified into the Regional Fluoride Mitigation and Research Centre, which will be set up near Dandumalkapuram in Choutuppal mandal. The District Collector has earmarked ten acres of land for the proposed Rs. 100-crore Regional Fluoride Mitigation and Research Centre and handed it over to the National Institute of Nutrition. The centre will undertake research in various issues, including reducing the effect of fluoride, treatment of the victims and to check the effect of fluoride on future generations, among others. It will be expanded into a Rs. 250-crore centre once it becomes full-fledged. It will also take up research into the preventive measures to correct the dental problems of the victims. There will also be special focus on the fluoride victims who developed rickets to provide them right nutrition to set it right. The research will hopefully benefit to increase the victims’ life span. The centre will provide medical facilities to the fluoride victims from other States like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam. It will focus on the possibility of undertaking surgical operations to overcome the disability. The centre will train people on taking right nutrition to overcome the problem. An auditorium to house 1,000 persons will be constructed to give training to the victims. One of the largest laboratories in the country will be set up at the research facility. Staff of the centre will test water in the fluoride-affected areas to identify the other likely water-borne diseases.
  
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will now go back to the drawing board to plug imperfections in its indigenous cryogenic upper-stage Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) programme, after the GSLV-D5 mission to launch into orbit the advanced communication satellite GSAT-14, was aborted due to a fuel leak on 19 August. The mission was called off at a fairly advanced stage of the 29-hour countdown, and with only a little over an hour left for the lift-off that was scheduled for 4.50 p.m., at the second launch pad of the Sriharikota spaceport. This was the eighth flight of the GSLV, the fourth developmental flight and only the second time in three years that the indigenously-developed cryogenic upper stage was flight-tested.
  
  The Rs. 205-crore expendable rocket’s mission was to inject the cuboid-shaped and 1982-kg weighing GSAT-14 in orbit to signal India’s entry into an ivy league of nations with frontier capabilities of launching 2,000-2,500 kg class of advanced communication satellites in outer space.
  
• The GSAT-14, the 23rd geostationary communication satellite built by ISRO, would have joined a line-up of nine Indian satellites to help provide a host of satellite-based communication services, including tele-education and tele-medicine. The satellite’s mission was also to augment the in-orbit capacity of the extended C and Ku-band transponders in the INSAT-GSAT ecosystem to set the stage for new and exciting experiments driven by satellite-based communication. The leak was reportedly observed in the second stage of the 49-metre tall GSLV-D5. The rocket adopts a three-stage fuel cycle — the core solid stage, liquid and a cryogenic upper stage. At about 4 p.m., ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan, accompanied by a team of glum-looking scientists, met the media to formally declare that the GSLV-D5 mission had been called off.
  
• An international panel of scientists has recently found with near certainty that human activity is the cause of most of the temperature increases in recent decades, and warns that sea levels could conceivably rise by more than 3 feet by the end of the century if emissions continue at a runaway pace. The scientists, whose findings have been reported in a draft summary of the next big U.N. climate report, largely dismiss the belief that there has been a slowdown — often cited by those sceptical of climate change — in the pace of global warming, attributing it most likely to short-term factors. The report emphasises that the basic facts about future climate change are now more firmly established than ever, justifying the rise in global concern.
  
• It also reiterates that the consequences of escalating emissions are likely to be profound. The draft comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body of several hundred scientists that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, along with Al Gore. Its summaries, published every five or six years, are considered definitive assessments of the risks of climate change, and they influence the actions of governments around the world.
  
• Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent on efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions, for instance, largely on the basis of the group’s findings. The coming report will be the fifth major assessment from the group, created in 1988. Each report has declared with greater certainty that the planet is indeed warming, with greater likelihood that humans are the primary cause. Regarding the question of how much the planet could warm if carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere doubled, the previous report largely ruled out any number below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
  
• The new draft says the rise could be as low as 2.7 degrees, essentially restoring a scientific consensus that prevailed from 1979 to 2007.The level of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, is up 41 per cent since the Industrial Revolution, and if present trends continue it could double in a matter of decades. After winning the Nobel Peace Prize six years ago, the group became a political target for climate doubters, who helped identify minor errors in the 2007 report. This time, the panel adopted rigorous procedures in the hope of preventing such mistakes.
  
• The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Tariq Anwar in a written reply on 23 August to Rajya Sabha questions informed that, realizing that the climate change is likely to have major impacts on agriculture, the Government through Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has assessed the impact of climate change on Indian agriculture under different scenarios using crop simulation models. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has conducted climate change impact analysis on crop yields through various centres in different parts of the country using crop simulation models (INFO-CROP and HAD CM3) for 2020, 2050 and 2080.
  
• The results indicate variability in temperature and rainfall pattern with significant impacts on crop yields. These studies projected reduction in yields of irrigated rice by about 4% in 2020, 7% in 2050 and 10% in 2080. Rain fed rice yields are likely to be reduced by 6% in 2020, but in 2050 and 2080 they are projected to decrease only marginally (<2.5%). Climate change is projected to reduce timely-sown irrigated wheat production by about 6% in 2020. In case of late sown wheat, however, the projected reductions are to the extent of 18, 23 and 25 percent in 2020, 2050 and 2080 respectively. Yields of irrigated kharif maize may decrease by about 18% in 2020 and 2050 and about 23% in 2080 due to climate change.
  
• Rain fed sorghum yields are projected to decline marginally (2.5%) in 2020 scenario and by about 8% in 2050. The Government through Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has initiated a network project on ‘National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture’ (NICRA) to enhance resilience of Indian agriculture through Strategic Research on adaptation and mitigation (covering crops, livestock, fisheries and natural resource management), Technology Demonstration, Capacity Building and Sponsored/Competitive Grant Projects. Besides, a mission document on National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) was accorded in-principle approval by the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. NMSA identifies 10 key dimensions for promoting sustainable agriculture practices by implementing programme of action through four functional areas, namely, Research and Development, Technologies, products and practices, Infrastructures and Capacity building. The programmes of action have been embedded and mainstreamed under the ongoing schemes of Ministry of Agriculture through selective up-scaling and course correction measures.
  
• India's first Cyber Forensic Laboratory (CFL) has been set up in Tripura. The lab, established at the Tripura High Court will provide court case related information."From the CFL, automatic SMS alert would go to both lawyers and the litigant about the fate of the court case. If any lawyer or the petitioner remains absent on the day of trial, the SMS alert would go to all concerned," a law department official told.
  
  The Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur, who was earlier the chief justice of the Gauhati High Court, inaugurated the CFL on 11 August. Lokur first introduced the e-court programme in India when he was a judge in the Delhi High Court. He was a pioneer in introducing video conferencing systems between the Delhi High Court and Tihar jail in 2007.The seven northeastern states - Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh - were earlier under the Gauhati High Court with benches in the state capitals. Sikkim had a separate high court.
  
• A major fire broke out on board INS Sindhurakshak at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai on 14th August and sunk the submarine. INS Sindhurakshak is the ninth of the ten Sindhughosh-class diesel-electric submarines of the Indian Navy. On 4th June 2010, the Indian Defence Ministry and Zvezdochka shipyard signed a contract worth US $ 80 million to upgrade and improve the submarine. The submarine suffered two fire incidents, a minor one in 2010 and a major one on 14 August 2013, which led to in its sinking at Mumbai's naval dockyards. Sindhurakshak was constructed in Admiralty Shipyard, St. Petersburg. Construction of the submarine started in 1995. It was launched in June 1997 and delivered in December 1997. A fire broke out aboard Sindhurakshak while the vessel was in Visakhapatnam in February 2010.
  
• The National Teeka Express was launched by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare in the presence of Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs and Sports at Alwar, Rajasthan on 1 August. It has been launched to protect children from life-threatening childhood diseases. It may be mentioned that under Routine Immunization Programme, ANMs collect vaccines from storage point (Cold Chain Point) and transport them to session sites, i.e. either Sub-centre or Anganwadi centre for carrying out vaccination. From 2005-06, Govt. of India is providing support for distribution of vaccine from last storage point to outreach immunization session sites at Sub-centres/Anganwadis, known as Alternate Vaccine Delivery (AVD) under NRHM. Rs. 79.3 crores was allocated to the states as support for Alternate Vaccine Delivery in 2012-13.
  
  But the government has noticed gaps in the implementation of AVD in difficult areas with low access to healthcare services.Many a times ANMs have to collect the vaccines on the day preceding the immunization day, which may compromise the cold chain maintenance and possible loss of potency of vaccine. Improper storage could also lead to adverse events following immunization. For this reason, the government has launched this innovative and ambitious initiative of Teeka Express. Designated vehicles under the brand name of ‘National Teeka Express’ will help not only in distribution of the vaccines and complementary logistics from last cold chain point to immunization session sites but will also ensure holding of sessions at the mobile vaccination centre now. Teeka express is planned to be piloted in 69 high priority districts with difficult areas and low immunization coverage.
  
• Kirobo, the world's first talking humanoid robot "astronaut", has been launched into space. It will act as a companion for astronaut Koichi Wakata and will communicate with another robot on Earth. Kirobo — derived from the Japanese words for “hope” and “robot” — was among five tons of supplies and machinery on a rocket launched on 28 July, from Tanegashima in southwestern Japan, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said.
  
• India will launch its first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, on August 12 from the Kochi shipyard. This will make India only the fifth country after the US, Russia, Britain and France to have the capability to build such vessels."About 83 per cent of the fabrication work and 75 per cent of the construction work will be over when the ship goes into water," said Indian Navy's vice chief, Admiral Robin Dhowan.-The rest of the work, including the flight deck, will be completed once the ship is launched, the Navy vice chief said. The aircraft carrier is expected to be inducted into the Indian Navy by 2018.INS Vikrant will have two take-off runways and a landing strip with three arrester wires capable of operating a STOBAR (Short Take Off But Arrested Recovery). The main stay fighters positioned on board would be Russian MiG -29k fighter jets. The naval variant of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) produced by India is also scheduled to be positioned on the warship. However, it would depend on how quickly and effectively Navy variant of the LCA is produced and cleared for active duty.
  
• In a significant step for automobile research and development (R&D) in the country, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and automobile major Tata Motors have developed a hydrogen-powered bus. The bus is currently in trial stages as the company looks to reach a viable market proposition. The Tata Starbus – Fuel Cell is a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) type of bus using hydrogen bottles as fuel. These are stored on top of the bus. The vehicle has been developed following several years of research as Tata Motors had entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2006 with ISRO to design and develop such a product. Accordingly, Tata Motors had set up a fuel cell power system test laboratory in Bangalore and later at ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu. Tata Motors started its innovation with CNG products and moved on to series and parallel CNG-electric hybrid buses. The Tata Starbus – Fuel Cell is a zero emission transport solution for commuting within the city. “The bus is currently in trial stages before it reaches a viable market proposition, supported by the necessary support infrastructure,” the spokesperson said in a press conference in Mumbai.
  
• The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) has developed 41 new crop varieties under its Nuclear Agriculture programme, a top official said on 6th August. These include 15 varieties of groundnut, eight of mungbean (green gram), five of udad (black gram), four of tur (pigeon pea), three of mustard, two of soyabean and one each of sunflower, chavali (cowpea), rice and jute.
  
  "If the country has to be food self-reliant, it is imperative to embrace nuclear agriculture technology, particularly with agriculture land getting scarcer and food demand growing exponentially," said scientist Suresh G. Bhagwat, Head of BARC's Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division. India needs to boost food production and ensure its safety and fair distribution to its increasing population.
  
  "Not many are aware that nuclear radiation-based technologies can contribute to this effort very significantly," Bhagwat said, speaking at the Knowledge Series, organised by Public Relations Council of India and Mumbai Press Club here.A major benefit of radiation effect on plants is enhancement of genetic variability, which can be harnessed to develop new crop varieties, including cereals, pulses and oilseeds with desirable characteris like increased yield, early maturity, salinity or water stress tolerance and disease resistance. Till date, the 41 crop varieties development at BARC in collaboration with some agriculture universities in different states have been approved by the central government for commercial cultivation.
  
• Defence Research Laboratory (DRL), Tejpur, a laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a chilli spray i.e. CAPSISPRAY. It is an eco-friendly non-lethal chilli spray for personal protection and self- defence. It contains Oleoresin Capsicum extracted from the world`s hottest chilli, the Bhut Jolokia (Capsicum Assamicum), largely cultivated in Assam and other parts of North Eastern States of India. The prototype of chilli spray is ready and the product is required to be tested for several toxicology parameters. DRDO will take further steps to popularize the product once trials are over. This information was given by Defence Minister Shri AK Antony in a written reply to Anil Desai and Rajani Patil in Rajya Sabha on 7 August.
  
• Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) programme is a joint co-development and co-production programme between India and Russia. The preliminary design phase of the programme has been completed on 19th June, 2013. Presently the Research and Development (R&D) contract is under negotiation with Russians to define the total scope; the work share and responsibilities of each side; and the financial implications of the programme. This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singhin a written reply to AdhalraoPatilShivajiand others in Lok Sabha on 5 August.
  
• Biocon on 10 August 2013 announced that it has launched its first biologic drug, ALZUMAb for Psoriasis. The newly launched drug will be sold in the market at about half the price of the similar drugs of multi-national companies available in the market. A vial of the drug from Biocon will be available in India at Rs. 7,950. As per the announcement made by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon this is the world’s first novel anti-CD6 antibody to treat psoriasis. The drug ALZUMAbhas been made using cells and doesn't include artificial chemicals. It took about 10 years for Biocon to develop the drug. Psoriasis is immune-mediated disease that effects the skin. The disease on an average affects about 10-20 million Indians and it attacks the immune system of human beings. This disease attacks when the immune system mistakes a normal skin cell for a pathogen, and sends out faulty signals that cause overproduction of new skin cells.
  
• India successfully test-fired two rounds of indigenously developed Pinaka rockets from a multi-barrel rocket launcher (MBRL) from a base at Chandipur-on-sea near Balasore, off the Odisha coast on 7 August 2013.The tests were routine trials conducted for training purpose. The tests were conducted by personnel from Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune unit at Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE) firing point-2.Pinaka is an area weapon system with a range of 40 km. Pinaka system can fire a salvo of 12 rockets in 44 seconds. The battery of six launchers can neutralise at a time a target area of 3.9 sq km.
  
• Researchers from the University of Chicago, in the first week of August 2013, revealed that dolphins had the longest memories among the non-human species. Researchers declared that even if these dolphins were separated for more than 20 years, they were capable of recalling the whistles of their former companions. The researchers believed that the long-term memories of dolphins were a product of complex social connections from which they have evolved. Bailey the dolphin hadn’t seen another dolphin named Allie since the two juveniles lived together at the Dolphin Connection in the Florida Keys before being separated. Yet 20 1/2 years later, Bailey recognized and reacted to Allie’s distinctive signal when University of Chicago researcher Jason Bruck played it on a speaker. Other dolphins had similar steel-trap memories. Studies have shown that monkeys can remember things for about four years and anecdotes have elephants remembering for about 10, Mr. Bruck says in a paper published on Wednesday by “Proceedings of the Royal Society B”.
  
• The world's first burger made from lab-grown beef was fried up on Monday at a demonstration in London on 5 August. Developed by Maastricht University in the Netherlands, scientists hope the meat cultured from cattle stem cells will help fight world hunger and climate change. Two volunteers who participated in the first public frying of hamburger grown in a lab said, that it had the texture of meat but was short of flavor because of the lack of fat. Mark Post, whose team at Maastricht University developed the burger, hopes that making meat in labs could eventually help feed the world and fight climate change. That goal is many years distant, at best.
  
• India has activated the atomic reactor on board INS Arihant, a development that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described as a "giant stride" in the progress of the country's indigenous capabilities. Sources said the nuclear reactor on Arihant was made critical on 9 August, and the submarine was on its own power now. They said activation of nuclear reactor was "a major landmark" in making the submarine operational. Sources added the submarine would undergo extensive sea trials before being made operational. INS Arihant has been undergoing trials at Navy's submarine base in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
  
• Manmohan Singh said the nuclear reactor's activation on India's first nuclear submarine INS Arihant "represents a giant stride in the progress of our indigenous technological capabilities". The DRDO has also readied a medium-range nuclear missile BO-5 for being deployed on the Arihant and its last developmental trial was held on January 27 off the coast of Vishakhapatnam. The nuclear submarine will help India achieve the capability of going into high seas without the need to surface the vessel for long durations.
  
• Conventional diesel-electric submarines have to come up on surface at regular intervals for charging the cells of the vessel. India is the only nation in the Indian Ocean region to have a nuclear submarine and the sixth in the world to have the capability to design and construct a nuclear submarine. INS Arihant is longer than any of the submarine in the Indian Navy's fleet so far. A nuclear submarine is powered by a nuclear reactor, which generates tremendous heat driving a steam turbine. It has unlimited underwater endurance and speed twice that of its conventional counterparts. The submarine can carry 12 nuclear missiles K-15.