SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS JANUARY 2015

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS JANUARY 2015

• New planet, 200 times to Saturn discovered
  Astronomers say they have discovered a planet with a gigantic ring system that is 200 times larger than that around Saturn. It is the first such structure detected around a planet beyond our Solar System. The researchers say there are probably more than 30 rings, each measuring tens of millions of kilometres in diameter. The findings by a Dutch-US team are to be published in the Astrophysical Journal.
  
• Agni-v launched successfully
   India on 31st January morning successfully test-fired its most sophisticated and technologically advanced missile, the nuclear-capable Agni V, from a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) facility at Wheelers Island located off the coast of Dhamara in north Odisha's Bhadrak district.
  
  Agni V, which can hit a target more than 5,000 km away carrying both nuclear as well as conventional warheads of up to 1.5 tonne, had been tested test twice in April 2012 and September 2013. However, this is the first time the strategically important missile's canister-based version was successfully test-launched.
  
  After its successful blast-off, the 17-metre long and 2-metre wide missile’s 20-minute flight was monitored by DRDO radars and telemetry stations located at various places along the Odisha coastline till its touchdown at a pre-designated “target” deep inside the Indian Ocean. The missile’s final moments were also witnessed by two Indian Navy ships stationed near the spot.
  
  Very few nations in the world, like the United States, China and Russia, have the capacity to fire a missile from a canister.Agni V, however, is yet to be inducted into the Indian armed forces. It will be commissioned after a few more successful test-firings.
  
• Climate Change: PM for credit to green initiatives
  Pitching for a paradigm shift in the global approach towards climate change, PM Narendra Modi on 19th January said instead of only focusing on emission cuts, due credit should be given to efforts made for clean energy generation and conservation.
  
  Underlining that focus should shift from "carbon credit" towards "green credit", he singled out solar energy, saying it needs to be integrated with hybrid system of energy to make it useful.
  
  He favoured setting up of a consortium of nations having potential in solar energy which could join hands with India in innovation and cutting-edge research that would reduce the cost of solar energy, making it more accessible to people.
  
  Chairing the first meeting of the reconstituted 'Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change in New Delhi on 20th January, Modi said that "instead of focussing on emissions and cuts alone, focus should shift on what we have done for clean energy generation, energy conservation and energy efficiency, and what more can be done in these areas. He called for a careful evaluation of all the initiatives that have been taken by India in this regard.
  
  These include initiatives in solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy, and transportation projects that have reduced distances or travel times.
  
  Modi said India looks at the global concern and awareness on Climate Change, as a great opportunity for working towards improving the quality of life of its citizens, and making a positive contribution for mankind.
  
  He also directed ministries to prepare a concept note on five uncovered areas -- health, urban waste management, coastal areas and wind energy -- while dealing with climate change as these are not covered under the ongoing missions.
  
  Modi asked the ministries to ensure the existing eight missions run in a more focussed manner and deliver the results.
  
  These include missions on solar energy, enhanced energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem, green India, sustainable agriculture, Strategic Knowledge for climate change.
  
• First public lighting system that runs on solar, wind energy
  Spanish researchers have designed the first public lighting system that runs on solar and wind energy. The new system, developed after four years of research, is designed for inter-urban roads, motorways, urban parks and other public areas. It is unique and reduces the cost by 20 per cent compared with conventional public lighting systems, researchers said.
  
  The system was developed by Ramon Bargallo, a researcher from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Barcelona College of Industrial Engineering (EUETIB) of the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain, in collaboration with the company Eolgreen.
  
  The prototype is 10 metres high and is fitted with a solar panel, a wind turbine and a battery. The turbine runs at a speed of 10 to 200 revolutions per minute (rpm) and has a maximum output of 400 watts (W). The researchers' aim is to make the lighting system even more environmentally efficient, so work is being done on a second prototype generator that runs at a lower speed (10 to 60 rpm) and has a lower output (100 W).
  
• ISRO tech for fire-resistant houses
  Indian space agency (Isro) has developed a low-cost fire-resistant coating which can be used for protecting rail coaches and buildings. The agency has plans to tie up with a suitable industrial partner for the commercial use of the technology, which was developed to protect the PSLV fuel tanks.
  
  It could be used to safeguard railway coaches as well as concrete buildings from fire accidents similar to the blaze that gutted an empty stationary coach at the Central Station
  
  The new compound, CASPOL, is a water-based ready-to-coat and easy-to-use flame proof coating having excellent flame retardant, waterproofing and thermal control properties. It could be applied on walls, clothes, paper, thatched roofs, wood etc. to protect them from fire. It contains no toxic material and is very eco-friendly. The emulsion can be sprayed or spread using a brush on surfaces that need fire protection.
  
  One liter of CASPOL can coat 1.5 sq meters with a thickness of 500 micron, which is practically adequate for fire protection and thermal insulation. It could also be used as a flame-retardant material in railways and automobiles, where the seat cushions can be made flameproof, without affecting the cushioning characteristics.
  
• EU should curb mercury emissions from cremations
  Environment campaigners are calling for curbs on mercury emissions from human cremations as part of pollution controls that EU authorities will debate this month. Increased cremation as shortage of land makes burial expensive has coincided with a rise in emissions of the toxic metal from fillings in teeth. An average cremation releases 2 to 4 grams of mercury, data compiled by U.S. researchers’ shows.
  
  Mercury is associated with mental development problems. After entering the air and then falling in rain it becomes concentrated in fish that, if eaten during pregnancy, can cause harm to unborn children. Some 200,000 babies are born in the European Union annually with mercury levels harmful to their development, public health researchers have found.
  
  The European Environmental Bureau (EEB), which is coordinating non-governmental organizations in Brussels in an increasingly polarized debate on air quality, says crematoria should be included in new standards on incinerating waste.
  
  One option would be removing teeth from corpses before cremation, although the campaigners acknowledge that may raise ethical issues. Of the 28 EU states, so far only Germany has a mercury emissions limit, although the EU has regulated large coal power plants - the biggest source of mercury pollution. Sweden and Denmark have banned mercury in dental fillings.
  
  Draft EU air quality legislation from 2013 included national ceilings for pollutants and emissions from medium-sized combustion plants (MCPs), theoretically including crematoria.
  
  The new European Commission, the EU executive, last year proposed abandoning national targets and debate on MCPs, at the request of member states, excludes crematoria.
  
  Keen to counter Euroscepticism, particularly in Britain, which has objected to national targets on several issues,the Commission says it is preventing over-regulation.
  
  The EEB will take part in debate on the waste issue with representatives of the Commission, EU nations and industry between Jan. 19 and 22.
  
  Separately, the European Parliament votes on 15th January on an objection to the Commission's plan to scrap some environmental proposals, including on waste and air quality. Even before the Commission's new plan, the NGOs say the national ceilings were inadequate and did not deal with mercury.
  
  Data from the Cremation Society of Great Britain show that in Europe in 2012, the highest rate of cremations was in non-EU Switzerland, at 85 percent, followed by Denmark with 77 percent and Britain with 73 percent.
  
• Forest owlet sighted in M.P.
  A Pune-based conservation society has reported that the forest owlet ( Athene blewitti ), a ‘critically endangered species’, has been sighted in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district.
  
  According to the city-based Wildlife Research and Conservation Society (WRCS), a team carrying out extensive research in Khandwa, sighted a spotted owlet in the adjoining district of Betul during the course of their survey.
  
  The owlet, endemic to Central Indian forests was said to be extinct in the wild when it was recently rediscovered in 1997.It was most recently seen for the first time in the Western Ghats in October last year by naturalist Sunil Laad of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
  
• Climate change, extinctions signal Earth in danger zone - study
  Climate change and high rates of extinctions of animals and plants are pushing the Earth into a danger zone for humanity, a scientific report card about mankind's impact on nature said on 15th January. An international team of 18 experts, expanding on a 2009 report about "planetary boundaries" for safe human use, also sounded the alarm about clearance of forests and pollution from nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilizers.
  
  Of a total of nine boundaries assessed, freshwater use, ocean acidification and ozone depletion were judged to be within safe limits. Others, including levels of airborne pollution, were yet to be properly assessed. The report defined climate change and loss of species as two core areas of concern. Each "has the potential on its own to drive the Earth System into a new state should they be substantially and persistently transgressed
  
  Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, are about 397 parts per million in the atmosphere, above 350 ppm that the study set as the boundary for safe use.
  
  Almost 200 governments will meet in Paris in late 2015 to try to agree a deal to limit global warming to avert floods, droughts, heat waves and rising sea levels blamed on rising emissions of greenhouse gases. The study said that rates of extinctions of animals and plants, caused by factors ranging from pollution to deforestation, were 10 to 100 times higher than safe levels. The report expanded definitions of the planetary boundaries set in 2009, making it hard to compare trends.
  
• NASA to launch drought-tracking satellite
  A new satellite expected to be launched this month will improve drought monitoring around the world, the US space agency said in a statement. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite will provide the best maps yet of soil moisture levels from pole-to-pole. The satellite, which will be carried aloft by a Delta II rocket, is likely to be launched on January 29 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
  
  Soil moisture is one of the key factors in estimating drought severity; it also influences local weather, adds to hazards such as flooding, and plays a role in how plants store and release carbon.
  
  Data from the satellite will track global soil moisture levels for the top two inches of the Earth's surface every two to three days. Scientists will for the first time get a bird's-eye view of drought patterns; for instance, they will watch where droughts begin and end, and how droughts spread across large areas.
  
  The mission is planned to last three years, at a cost of $916 million (including launch), but the instruments could last several years longer. The soil moisture maps will help farmers who depend on rain to irrigate crops. The SMAP satellite's most prominent feature is its rotating mesh antenna, which measures nearly six meters across - the largest ever deployed in space.
  
• Mars probe found 11 years after disappearing
  A British-built space probe, thought lost on Mars since 2003, has been found on the surface of the Red planet, ending the mystery of what happened to the mission more than a decade ago, the UK Space Agency said on 16th January.
  
  Beagle-2 was released from its mother craft on December 19, 2003 and was due to land six days later. But nothing was heard from the lander after its scheduled touchdown.
  
  Now, over a decade later, the lander has been identified in images taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). This find shows that the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) sequence for Beagle 2 worked and the lander did successfully touchdown on Mars on Christmas Day 2003, the agency said.
  
  Beagle 2 hitched a ride to Mars on ESA's Mars Express mission and was a collaboration between industry and academia.
  
  Images taken by the HiRISE camera on MRO have identified clear evidence for the lander and convincing evidence for key entry and descent components on the surface of Mars within the expected landing area of Isidis Planitia (an impact basin close to the equator).
  
  Subsequent re-imaging and analysis by the Beagle 2 team, HiRISE team and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has confirmed that the targets discovered, are of the correct size, shape, colour and dispersion (separation) to be Beagle 2, the agency said.
  
• 102 Indian Science Congress
  The 102nd edition of Indian Science Congress was held in Mumbai from January 3,2015 to January 7,2015. It was inaugurated by Current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in Mumbai University. Studies and papers on Ancient Indian Vedas were presented in this Congress. Accomplishments of Ancient Indian Science in the fields of medicine,mathematics,surgery etc. were presented. There was also a session on India's successful Mars Orbiter Mission.
  
• Indian Science Congress 2015
  The Indian Science Congress has discussed Ancient Indian efforts, in founding various scientific aspects, including Pythogaras therom, earth shape.. etc. The symposium on “Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit” that included a paper on the existence of interplanetary aircraft in India around 9,000 years ago, references to “cosmic connection” and a phenomenon explained as “fusion of science and spirituality due to inter-penetration law.”
  
  Held under the aegis of Mumbai University, this is the first time in its 102-year history that the Congress has included such a session, a move hailed by delegates as long overdue but criticised by many as mixing of science with mythology.
  
  Seven papers were presented over the five-hour session. Papers were invited by the Department of Sanskrit, Mumbai University, and Kavi Kulaguru Kalidas University, Ramtek, and reviewed by the Mumbai University’s Department of Sanskrit. Some authors were professionals from varied fields, while others were students of Sanskrit.
  
  One paper, co-authored by Captain Anand Bodas, retired head of a pilot training centre, and Ameya Jadhav, a teacher, claimed there was evidence of ancient aviation in the Rigveda.
  
  Captain Bodas told that knowledge of making aeroplanes existed between 6 and 7000 BC. An ancient Indian sage, he said, had also talked of a radar system, which depended on the “basic principle that any animate or inanimate object radiates energy all the time. We know that when radiation stops, that object is considered dead.”
  
  Other papers spoke about how Indian texts were the first to talk about the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, a constant known as pi, the Pythagoras theorem, classification of plants, veterinary science and metallurgy.
  
  According to Gauri Mahulikar, head of Sanskrit department of Mumbai University in the Sulbha Sutra written in 800 BCE, Baudhayan wrote the geometric formula now famously known as Pythagoras theorem. It was written by Baudhayan 300 years before Pythagoras. Sulbha Sutra was also the first to crack the pi ratio.
  
  Delegates called for serious inter-disciplinary research between various branches of science and ancient Sanskrit texts.
  
  About Indian Science Congress
  The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) owes its origin to the foresight and initiative of two British Chemists, namely, Professor J. L. Simonsen and Professor P.S. MacMahon.
  
  The Association was formed with the following objectives : 
  • To advance and promote the cause of science in India
  • To hold an annual congress at a suitable place in India
  • To publish such proceedings, journals, transactions and other publications as may be considered desirable.
  • To secure and manage funds and endowments for the promotion of Science inlcuding the rights of disposing of or selling all or any portion of the properties of the Association.
  • To do and perform any or all other acts, matters and things as are conductive to, or incidental to, or necessary for, the above objects.
  
  The first meeting of the Congress was held from January 15-17, 1914 at the premises of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, with the Honourable Justice Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, the then Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University, as President. One hundred and five scientists from different parts of India and abroad attended and the papers numbering 35 were divided into six sections-Botany, Chemistry, Ethnography, Geology, Physics, Zoology under six Sectional Presidents.
  
• Light Water Reactor work started
  India has started work on fabricating a Light Water Reactor (LWR) of 900 MWe (megawatt electric) for electricity generation, a reactor technology that differs from the heavy water reactors that form the mainstay of the country’s nuclear power programme currently.
  
  The Department of Atomic Energy is in the process of preparing detailed designs of the 900 MWe pressurised water reactor for approval by the regulatory authority — the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). The design builds on the indigenously developed small-sized LWR developed over the past eight years, a compact version of which was deployed aboard the INS Arihant — the first Indian nuclear-powered submarine.
  
  The family of LWRs, cooled and moderated using ordinary water, tend to be simpler and cheaper to build than other types of nuclear reactors, due to which they make up the majority of civil nuclear reactors — including those built by the Russian, French and US firms — as well as naval propulsion reactors in service across the world.
  
  The LWR project is a joint effort between the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL). A new Special Uranium Enrichment Facility to fuel the LWR reactor has also been proposed at Chitradurga, Karnataka.
  
  Unlike the natural uranium and heavy water-based Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs), which constitute the mainstay of India’s nuclear power programme, LWRs (such as pressurised water reactors and boiling water reactors) use enriched uranium as fuel and ordinary water as both the moderator and coolant. Incidently, India’s atomic power programme commenced in the early sixties with two imported LWR units (of the boiling water reactor-type) at Tarapur of 160-MWe capacity, each set up by Bechtel and GE under US assistance. that became operational in 1969.
  
  The next reactor was a 100MWe unit set up with Canadian assistance at Rawatbhata four years later, based on which, the NPCIL kicked off its indigenous programme with the design of its 220-MWe PHWRs. Subsequently, the indigenous PHWRs of 540-MWe capacity were developed and NPCIL is currently setting up four newly developed 700-MWe PHWRs at Kakrapar and Rawatbhata.
  
  Of India’s current installed nuclear power capacity of 4,780 MWe, a total of 4,160 MWe is based on the indigenous PHWR technology and 620 MW on foreign technical cooperation using LWR technology.
  
  Two 1000 MWe units of the Kudankulam nuclear power project built with assistance from Russia also use LWR reactors while three more sites are being readied for setting up projects deploying LWRs of three different types — the French EPRs (1650MWe of Areva), Toshiba Westinghouse’s AP1000 and GE-Hitachi’s ESBWR.
  
• 3 Earth-like planets up there: NASA
  In a major find, NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has discovered three new Earth-size habitable or ‘Goldilocks’ zones around Sun-like stars. Of the three, two are likely made of rock like our Earth. Of more than 1,000 verified planets found by Kepler, eight are less than twice Earth-size and in their stars' habitable zone. All eight orbit stars are cooler and smaller than our Sun, the US space agency said in a statement.
  
  Two of the newly validated planets, Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b, are less than 1.5 times the diameter of Earth. Kepler-438b, 475 light-years away, is 12 per cent bigger than Earth and orbits its star once every 35.2 days.Kepler-442b, 1,100 light-years away, is 33 per cent bigger than Earth and orbits its star once every 112 days.
  
  Both Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b orbit stars smaller and cooler than our Sun, making the habitable zone closer to their parent star in the direction of the constellation Lyra.
  
• Centre approves Neutrino project
  Centre has given its nod to launch a project for experiments in high-energy physics. India will join the global high-end scientific Neutrino Club
  The Cabinet Committee on Security had cleared the project, which is to come up at Pottipuram village in Tamil Nadu. The investment for this is Rs 1, 500 crore.
  
  The project will be funded jointly by the Department of Science and Technology and Atomic Energy, while the infrastructure will be created with the help of the Tamil Nadu government.
  
  The underground project, which will come up near Pottipuram village in Theni district on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border, will comprise a complex of caverns — the main cavern, which will house the current detector, will be 130 metres long, 26 metres wide and 30 metres high.
  
  There will be two smaller caverns that will be used for setting up experiments for neutrino double detector and dark matters, Mondal said. The complex will be approached by a 2-km-long tunnel.
  
  The Inter Institutional Centre for High Energy Physics will come up in Madurai, about 110 km from the Observatory.
  
  India will also seek international participation in the project, so that it turns out to be an international hub for high-end research such as CERN in Geneva, Mondal said. He however, added, Indian participation in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project will continue.
  
• Efficient e-waste management programme launched
  International Finance Corporation (IFC), in partnership with e-waste asset management and recycling company Attero, had launched the Clean-E-India initiative to collect and responsibly recycle e-waste through an inclusive approach that integrates informal waste collectors in an organised network.
  
  As part of the initiative, franchisees will partner in the project and work with informal last mile collectors (scrap collectors) who will also get trained in efficient e-waste collection and disposal. Simultaneously, collection centers are being established and public awareness is being raised about in proper disposal of electronic and electrical assets. The integrated programme has been launched in four cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad and is being supported by leading producers including Wipro, Samsung, Voltas, Acer, Videocon, and Haier.
  
  Since 95 per cent of the e-waste collected in India is handled by the informal sector, the initiative is strategically designed to work in tandem with local implementation partners who have identified franchisees in these cities. The franchisees will work with the last mile collectors and the entire collection would be sent to Attero’s plant for processing and recycling.
  
• House panel discusses report on changes in green laws
  Though the government is still to take a view on the recommendations of the T S R Subramanian panel on changes in environmental laws, the Parliamentary Standing Committee related to the ministries of Science and Technology and Environment has taken up the panel’s report for discussions and begun hearing views of various stakeholders.
  
  On 9th January, the Standing Committee, headed by former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar invited eight environmental experts to know about their opinion on the Subramanian committee recommendations.
  
  The committee was constituted by the Environment Ministry last year to suggest changes in six existing environmental laws with the objective of bringing them in line with current requirements. But the committee recommended the creation of a new environmental governance architecture.
  
  The government is still to accept or reject the recommendations. But Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has said amendments to many green laws would be brought in the budget session of Parliament and these would broadly be based on the recommendations made by the Subramanian Committee.
  
• Reactors under IAEA safeguards
  Paving the way for import of fuel for its nuclear reactors, India will complete the process of placing its civilian reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards in the next two days. The last two reactors — units 1 and 2 of the Narora Atomic Power Station in Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh — will come under the safeguards of the international atomic energy body in the next two days and the necessary paper work is underway.
  
  So far 20 facilities have been placed under IAEA safeguards. These reactors are now eligible to use imported uranium.
  
  This includes unit 1 and 2 of the Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS), units 1 to 6 of Rajasthan Atomic Power Station, units 1 and 2 of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, and units 1 and 2 of Kakrapar Atomic Power Station.
  
• About International Atomic Energy Agency
  The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization on 29 July 1957. Though established independently of the United Nations through its own international treaty, the IAEA Statute, the IAEA reports to both the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.
  
• IPCC future not tied to Paris Climate Deal
  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading UN body for the assessment of climate change, is continuing its work for the betterment of environment, according to it’s Chairman RK Pachauri. He said that the IPCC would continue its work, no matter whether countries arrive at a global climate deal next year in Paris or not. Its successive science-based reports had always been key inputs for negotiators in the past over two decades.
  
  The IPCC had come out with its last (fifth) assessment report in November ahead of the Lima climate talks. It is also most likely to come out with its sixth assessment report in future, bringing more scientific information to the table for policy-makers and general public on causes and impact of climate-damaging greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
  
  Amid speculation over the future of the IPCC once it submitted its 'synthesis' report, its chairman R K Pachauri said his expectation was that the body would also come out with the sixth assessment report (AR6) and a decision in this regard would hopefully be taken by member countries in February, 2015.
  
  The IPCC is a scientific body which reviews and assesses the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change. It was established in 1988 to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts.
  
  The body has since then come out with five successive assessment reports, telling the global community how human activities are playing havoc with environment and how it led to extreme weather events, melting of glaciers and acidification of oceans due to global warming.
  
  It was the IPCC second assessment report (AR2) of 1995 that had provided important material and key inputs to negotiators in the run-up to adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.
  
• Sri Lankan flying snake, spotted
  A flying snake, known to be endemic to Sri Lanka, has been sighted in Andhra Pradesh's Seshachalam forests, forest officials and researchers said.
  
  According to researchers, this is the first time that Chrysopelea taprobanica has been sighted outside the island nation.
  
  The species, known to be found in dry zone lowlands and parts of the intermediate climatic zones in Sri Lanka, was spotted at the Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve in Chittoor district.
  
  It was about a year ago that the species was seen in Chalama, a core forest area about 25 km from the hill shrine of Tirumala.
  
  Morphological studies and DNA tests proved that it was indeed Chrysopelea taprobanica, which glides by stretching its body into a flattened strip.However, the researchers have revealed this now after Checklist, a journal of biodiversity data, mentioned it in its latest issue.
  
• Low-cost phone launched by ICRISAT
  A customised 'low-cost' phone cum tablet has been launched for farmers by Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The device will allow information to be precisely targeted at individual farmers who own small plots of land to help them purchase inputs at lower prices, get a better price for their produce and link them to markets, to put them on the path to prosperity, ICRISAT Director General William Dar said, while launching the device on 29th December.
  
  The device priced at USD 299, has been developed by ICRISAT's Centre of Excellence in ICT Innovations for Agriculture in collaboration with NUNC Systems, a city-based company.
  
  Apart from regular phone services, developing world farmers would receive free messages about weather and pest problems while sharing the most competitive agricultural inputs and crop prices.
  
• Modi pitches for greater autonomy to Universities
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3rd January pitched for greater academic freedom and autonomy to universities and said educational institutions “must be freed from the clutches of excessive regulation and cumbersome procedures”. Speaking at the 102nd session of the Indian Science Congress at the University of Mumbai, Modi said these were required to place the university system at the “cutting edge of the research and development activities in the country”.
  
  Saying ease of doing research was as important as ease of doing business, Modi promised the scientific community he would cut red tape.
  
  He stressed the need to make investment in science and technology a part of corporate social responsibility and said digital connectivity must be “as much a basic right” as access to schools. He sought efforts to “revive the romance” of science in society and “rekindle” the love for it in children.
  
  Indian Science Congress
  The Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) owes its origin to the foresight and initiative of two British Chemists, namely, Professor J. L. Simonsen and Professor P.S. MacMahon. It occurred to them that scientific research in India might be stimulated if an annual meeting of research workers somewhat on the lines of the British Association for the Advancement of Science could be arranged.
  
  From this modest beginning with hundred and five members and thirty five papers communicated for reading at the first session, ISCA has grown into a strong fraternity with more than ten thousand members till to date.
  
  The Association was formed with the following objectives:
  To advance and promote the cause of science in India
  
  To hold an annual congress at a suitable place in India
  
  To publish such proceedings, journals, transactions and other publications as may be considered desirable.
  
  To secure and manage funds and endowments for the promotion of Science including the rights of disposing of or selling all or any portion of the properties of the Association.
  
  To do and perform any or all other acts, matters and things as are conductive to, or incidental to, or necessary for, the above objects.
  
  The first meeting of the Congress was held from January 15-17, 1914 at the premises of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, with the Honourable Justice Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, the then Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University, as President. One hundred and five scientists from different parts of India and abroad attended and the papers numbering 35 were divided into six sections-Botany, Chemistry, Ethnography, Geology, Physics, Zoology under six Sectional Presidents.