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Science & Technology Concept

THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER (LHC) The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature. The LHC lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres (17 mi) in circumference, as deep as 175 metres (574 ft) beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. This synchrotron is designed to collide opposing particle beams of either protons at an energy of 7 teraelectronvolts (7 TeV or 1.12microjoules) per nucleon, or lead nuclei at an energy of 574 TeV (92.0 µJ) per nucleus (2.76 TeV per nucleon). The term hadron refers to particles composed of quarks. The Large Hadron Collider was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) with the intention of testing various predictions of high-energy physics, including testing for the existence of the hypothesized Higgs boson and of the large family of new particlespredicted by supersymmetry. It was built in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries, as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories. On 10 September 2008, the proton beams were successfully circulated in the main ring of the LHC for the first time, but 9 days later operations were halted due to an explosion involving helium gas. On 20 November 2009 they were successfully circulated again, with the first recorded proton– proton collisions occurring 3 days later at the injection energy of 450 GeV per beam. After the 2009 winter shutdown, the LHC was restarted and the beam was ramped up to 3.5 TeV per beam (half

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its designed energy). On 30 March 2010, the first planned collisions took place between two 3.5 TeV beams, a new world record for the highest-energy man-made particle collisions. The LHC will continue to operate at half energy until the end of 2012; it will not run at full energy (7 TeV per beam) until 2014.

Purpose

Physicists hope that the LHC will help answer some of the fundamental open questions in physics, concerning the basic laws governing the interactions and forces among the elementary objects, the deep structure of space and time, and in particular the intersection of quantum mechanics and general relativity, where current theories and knowledge are unclear or break down altogether. Data is also needed from high energy particle experiments to indicate which versions of scientific models are more likely to be correct – in particular to choose between the Standard Model and Higgsless models and to validate their predictions and allow further theoretical development. Many theorists expect new physics beyond the Standard Model to emerge at the TeVscale, based on unsatisfactory properties of the Standard Model. Issues possibly to be explored by LHC collisions include: • Is the Higgs mechanism for generating elementary particle masses viaelectroweak symmetry breaking actually realised in nature? It is expected that the collider will either demonstrate or rule out the existence of the elusive Higgs boson, thereby allowing physicists to determine whether the Standard Model or its Higgsless model alternatives are more likely to be correct. 122

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Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept • Is supersymmetry, an extension of the Standard Model and Poincaré symmetry, realised in nature, implying that all known particles have supersymmetric partners? • Are there extra dimensions, as predicted by various models based on string theory, and can we detect them? • What is the nature of the dark matter that appears to account for 23% of the mass-energy of the universe? Other open questions which may be explored using high energy particle collisions: • It is already known that electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force are just different manifestations of a single force called the electroweak force. The LHC may clarify whether the electroweak force and the strong nuclear forceare similarly just different manifestations of one universal unified force, as predicted by various Grand Unification Theories. • Why is the fourth fundamental force (gravity) so many orders of magnitude weaker than the other three fundamental forces? See also Hierarchy problem. • Are there additional sources of quark flavour mixing, beyond those already predicted within the Standard Model? • Why are there apparent violations of the symmetry between matter and antimatter? See also CP violation. • What are the nature and properties of quarkgluon plasma, believed to have existed in the early universe and in certain compact and strange astronomical objects today? This will be investigated by heavy ion collisions in ALICE.

Findings CERN scientists estimate that, if the Standard Model is correct, a single Higgs boson may be produced every few hours. At this rate, it may take


about two to three years to collect enough data to discover the Higgs boson unambiguously. Similarly, it may take one year or more before sufficient results concerning supersymmetric particles have been gathered to draw meaningful conclusions. On the other hand, some extensions of the Standard Model predict additional particles, such as the heavy W' and Z' gauge bosons, whose existence might already be probed after a few months of data collection. The first physics results from the LHC, involving 284 collisions which took place in the ALICE detector, were reported on 15 December 2009. The results of the first proton–proton collisions at energies higher than Fermilab's Tevatron proton–antiproton collisions were published by the CMS collaboration in early February 2010, yielding greater-than-predicted charged-hadron production. After the first year of data collection, the LHC experimental collaborations started to release their preliminary results concerning searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model in proton-proton collisions. No evidence of new particles was detected in the 2010 data. As a result, bounds were set on the allowed parameter space of various extensions of the Standard Model, such as models with large extra dimensions, constrained versions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, and others. On 24 May 2011 it was reported that quark– gluon plasma (the densest matter besides black holes) has been created in the LHC. Between July and August 2011, results of searches for the Higgs boson and for exotic particles, based on the data collected during the first half of the 2011 run, were presented in conferences in Grenoble and Mumbai. In the latter conference it was reported that, despite hints of a Higgs signal in earlier data, ATLAS and CMS exclude with 95% confidence level (using the CLs method) the existence of a Higgs boson with the properties predicted by the Standard Model over most of the mass region between 145 and 466 GeV. The searches for new particles did not yield signals either, allowing to further constrain the parameter space of various extensions of the Standard Model, including its supersymmetric extensions. On 13 December 2011 it was reported that both the CMS and ATLAS 123


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs detectors have shown intensity peaks in the 124–125 GeV range, consistent with either background noise or the observation of the Higgs boson. On 22 December 2011 it was reported that a new particle had been observed, the Xb (3P) bottomonium state. The Higgs Boson

although it is anticipated that additional data to be collected during 2012 will allow a definite answer one way or the other. In the popular media, the particle is sometimes referred to as the God particle, a title generally disliked by the scientific community as a mediahyperbole that misleads readers.

The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. Its existence is predicted by the Standard Model to explain how spontaneous breaking of electroweak symmetry (the Higgs mechanism) takes place in nature, which in turn explains why other elementary particles havemass.[Note Its discovery would also confirm the Standard Model as essentially correct, as it is the only elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model that has not yet been observed in particle physics experiments. If shown to exist, it is expected to be a scalar boson. (Bosonsare particles with integer spin, and scalar bosons have spin 0.) Alternative sources of the Higgs mechanism that do not need the Higgs boson are also possible and would be considered if the existence of the Higgs boson were ruled out. They are known as Higgsless models. Experiments to find out whether or not the Higgs boson exists are currently being performed using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, and were performed at Fermilab's Tevatron until its closure in late 2011. Some theories suggest that any mechanism capable of generating the masses of elementary particles must become visible at energies above 1.4 TeV; therefore, the LHC (colliding two 3.5 TeV beams) is expected to be able to answer the question whether or not it actually exists. In December 2011, the two main experiments at the LHC (ATLAS and CMS) both reported independently that their data hints at a possibility the Higgs may exist with a mass around125 GeV/c2 (on the order of 10-25 kg). It is also believed that the original range under investigation has been narrowed down considerably and that a mass outside approximately 115–130 GeV/c2 is very likely to be ruled out. However, the evidence is not yet conclusive,

"The God particle"


The Higgs boson is often referred to as "the God particle" by the media, after the title of Leon Lederman's popular science book on particle physics, The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? While use of this term may have contributed to increased media interest,[58] many scientists dislike it, since it overstates the particle's importance, not least since its discovery would still leave unanswered questions about the unification of QCD, the electroweak interaction and gravity, and the ultimate origin of the universe. Lederman said he gave it the nickname "The God Particle" because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive," but jokingly added that a second reason was because "the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing. A renaming competition conducted by the science correspondent for the British Guardian newspaper chose the name "thechampagne bottle boson" as the best from among their submissions: "The bottom of a champagne bottle is in the shape of the Higgs potential and is often used as an illustration in physics lectures. So it's not an embarrassingly grandiose name, it is memorable, and [it] has some physics connection too. THE AAKASH The Aakash is an Android tablet computer jointly developed by theLondon-based company DataWind with the Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan and manufactured by the India-based company Quad, at a new production centre in Hyderabad — under a trial run of 100,000 units. The tablet was officially launched as the Aakash in New 124


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept Delhi on Oct 5, 2011. A substantially revised second generation model is projected for manufacture beginning in early 2012. The seven-inch touch screen tablet features 256 megabytes of RAM, uses an ARM 11 processor with the Android 2.2 operating system, has two USB port and delivers HD-quality video. For applications, the Aakash will have access to Getjar, a proprietary market, rather than theAndroid Market. As a multi-media platform, the Aakash project was beset by delays and setbacks. The device was developed as part of the country's aim to link 25,000 colleges and 400 universities in an e-learning program. Original projected as a "$35 laptop", the device will be sold to the Government of India at $50 and will be distributed at a government subsidized price of $35. A commercial version made in China will be marketed as theUbiSlate 7 at a projected price of $60. The name Aakash derives from the Sanskrit word for "aether" or (empty) space, and means "sky" in Hindi.

History

Aspiration to create a "made in India" computer was first reflected in a prototype "Simputer" that went into production in a small way. Bangalore based CPSU, Bharat Electronics Ltd manufactured around 5,000 Simputers to Indian Customers during 2002-07. In 2011, Kapil Sibal (by then the Minister for Human Resource Development MHRD (the Indian Education Minister) announced an anticipated low-cost computing device to compete with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) — though intended for urban college students rather than the OLPC's rural, underprivileged students. The device was projected to be designed by the students of Indian Institute of Technology Rajasthan – at the time uncredentialed in research or product development. The announced computer had been purchased off the shelf. The project remained dormant for about a year. A year later, the MHRD announced that the low cost computer would be launched in 6 weeks. Nine weeks later the MHRD showcased a tablet named "Aakash", not nearly what had been projected and at $60 rather than the projected $35. Arguably its greatest champion, India's TV channel "NDTV" said that the new low cost tablet was not a patch


that was shown as a prototype and was going to cost about twice as much. While it was once projected as a laptop computer, the design has evolved into a tablet computer. At the inauguration of the national Mission on Education Programme organized by the Union HRD Ministry in 2009, joint secretary N. K. Sinha had said that the computing device is 10 inches (which is around 25.5 cm) long and 5 inches (12.5 cm) wide and priced at around $30. India's Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal unveiled a prototype on 22 July 2010. The price of the device exhibited was projected at $35, eventually to drop to $20 and ultimately to $10. After the device was unveiled, OLPCChairman Nicholas Negroponte offered full access to OLPC technology at no cost to the Indian team. Doubts about the tablet were dismissed in a television program "Gadget Guru" aired on NDTV in August 2010, when it was shown to have 256 MB RAM and 2 GB of internal flash-memory storage and demonstrated running the Android operating system featuring video playback, internal Wi-Fi and cellular data via an external 3G modem.

Specifications

As released on 5 October 2011, the Aakash features an overall size of 190.5 x 118.5 x 15.7mm with a 7” resistive screen, a weight of 350gms and using the Android 2.2 operating system with access to the proprietary marketplace Getjar (not the Android marketplace), developed by DataWind. The processor is 366 MHz with Graphics Accelerator and HD Video Co-processor and the tablet features 256 MB RAM, a Micros SD slot with a 2GB Micro SD card (expandable to 32GB), two full-size USB ports, a 2100mAh battery, Wi-fi capability, a browser developed by DataWind, an internal cellular and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) modem, using a power consumption of 2 watts with a solar charging option. The device features 3.5mm audio output and input jack. The Aakash is designed to support various document (DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP,PDF), image (PNG, JPG, BMP and GIF), audio (MP3, AAC, AC3, WAV, WMA) and video (MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, FLV) formats and includes an application for access to YouTube video content. 125


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs Specifications Price Microprocessor Random Access Memory (RAM)

Aakash Rs.2,500 Arm11 – 366Mhz 256MB RAM

Battery OS Network Made in Rebate

2100 mAh Android 2.2 Froyo WiFi India 50% off for Indian Students

Development and testing Kapil Sibal has stated that a million devices would be made available to students in 2011. The devices will be manufactured at a cost of 1500 (€23 Euro) each, half of which will be paid by the government and half by the institutions that would use it. In January 2011, the company initially chosen to build the Sakshat, HCL Infosystems, failed to provide evidence that they had at least 600 million (60 crore) ($12.2 million) in bank guaranteed funds, as required by the Indian government, which has allocated $6.5 million to the project. As a result, the government has put the project out for bidding again. In June 2011,the HRD announced that it received a few samples from the production process which are under testing. Also it mentions that each state in India provided 3000 samples for testing on their functionality, utility and durability in field conditions. The Government of India announced that 10,000 (Sakshat) tablet will be delivered to IIT Rajasthan in late June and over the next four months 90,000 more would be made available at a price of 2500 device. Government will subsidize the cost by about 50%, so a student would have to pay less than 1,500 for the device. 35% of hardware components were sourced from South Korea, 25% from China, 16% from the USA, 16% from India and 8% from other countries. Software Development Data Wind, the maker of Aakash, has announced a contest for students wherein their best applications will be embedded in the Ubislate (Aakash Tablet). Top 5 application winners will be awarded Rs. 1 Lakh each.


UbiSlate 7 Rs.2,999 Cortex A8 – 700 Mhz 256 MB RAM {http://www.ubislate.com/ specifications.html } 3200 mAh Android 2.3 Gingerbread WiFi & GPRS Phone network China Foreign product Nasscom Foundation has partnered with DataWind and announced a contest wherein 10 NGOs will have an opportunity to win 20 tablets each, mainly to improve their operations and programme implementation.

Reception Problems such as low RAM, frequent system freeze, poor sound quality, absence of support for all formats and inability to install free software available online were also cited by users. Technical commentator Prasanto Roy criticized issues such as a low battery life, an insufficient 7" screen and absence of training and support infrastructure, especially in rural areas. Aakash-2 will be released by 2012.IIT Rajasthan has finalized the improvements of Aakash-1. After receiving feedback of the early release model from over 500 users from IITs and other institutions, DataWind announced the next iteration, will have a new microprocessor of 700 megahertz as compared to the present 366 megahertz processor. This will improve the speed of the tablet and solve the existing problems of quick overheating, frequent system freeze, poor sound quality, absence of support for all formats and inability to install free online software. A built in camera is the highlight of Aakash-2 which was missing in Aakash-1. Amount of memory, storage, and USB ports will remain the same. DataWind has scheduled the UbiSlate 7 for January 2012, projecting that specifications will include a revised screen, a frontfacing camera and improved RAM. On 16 December 2011, DataWind opened Aakash ordering online in their Official website at 2500 with one week Delivery time and Cash on 126


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept Delivery facility and its upgraded version Ubislate is available for pre-order at 2999. On 19 December 2011, DataWind reported that the first phase of Aakash tablet has been sold-out completely. It has been just three days since it was opened for Online order.

Future plans Made in China, the UbiSlate 7 will be launched between January and February of 2012 DataWind is already working on giving the device a capacitive screen and 3G connectivity. This version will be priced around Rs.7,000. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has announced the plan to launch LTE (4G) Tablet between 3500-5000 Rupees, with low cost Internet service. This tablet will be an upgraded version of Aakash developed by Data Wind. NEUTRINOS Neutrionos are teeny, tiny, nearly massless particles that travel at near lightspeeds. Born from violent astrophysical events like exploding stars and gamma ray bursts, they are fantastically abundant in the universe, and can move as easily through lead as we move through air. But they are notoriously difficult to pin down. "Neutrinos are really pretty strange particles when you get down to it," says John Conway, a professor of physics at University of California, Davis. "They're almost nothing at all, because they have almost no mass and no electric charge...They're just little whisps of almost nothing." Ghost particles, they're often called. But they are one of the universe's essential ingredients, and they've played a role in helping scientists understand some of the most fundamental questions in physics. For example, if you hold your hand toward the sunlight for one second, about a billion neutrinos from the sun will pass through it, says Dan Hooper, a scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago. This is because they're shot out as a byproduct of nuclear fusion from the sun - that's the same process that produces sunlight. "They're important to our


understanding of the kind of processes that go on in the sun, and also an important building block for the blueprint of nature," Hooper said. Particle physicists originally believed that neutrinos were massless. But in the 1990s, a team of Japanese scientists discovered that they actually have a smidgen of mass. This tiny bit of mass may explain why the universe is made up of matter, not antimatter. Early in the process of the Big Bang, there were equal amounts of matter and antimatter, according to Conway. "But as the universe expanded and cooled, matter and antimatter were mostly annihilated. And a slight asymmetry favored matter over antimatter. We think neutrinos may have something to do with that process.... And it's a puzzle, why we're made out of matter and not antimatter." Studying neutrinos is difficult. They're tough to detect since they interact so weakly with other particles. But the newly-completed IceCube Neutrino Observatory will study neutrinos inside a cubic kilometer block of ice in Antarctica. Here's how: when the neutrinos interact with atoms inside the deep arctic ice detectors, they sometimes give off puffs of energy. "As neutrinos pass through and interact, they produce charged particles, and the charged particles traveling through the ice give off light," Conway said. "That's how they're detected. It's like having a telescope for neutrinos underground." Fermilab National Laboratory has an experiment that hurls a beam of neutrinos 400 miles underground from Wisconsin to Northern Minnesota in about two milliseconds, and the lab is also planning a massive linear accelerator called Project X that will study the subatomic particles by sending them even farther. "If 100 years ago, I told someone that the universe was filled with massless, chargeless particles with no energy, I wonder if they'd have believed you," Conway said. "Who knows where we'll be 100 years from now." India-Based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is a proposed particle physicsresearch project to primarily study atmospheric neutrinos in a 1,300 meters (4,300 ft) deep cave under Ino Peak near Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, India. This project is notable in that it is anticipated to provide a precise measurement of 127


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs neutrino mixing parameters. The project is a multiinstitute collaboration and one of the biggest experimental particle physics projects undertaken in India. The project, expected to be completed in 2015 at an estimated cost of $250 million, has been cleared by the Ministry of Environment (India) for construction in the Bodi West Hills Reserved Forest in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu. When completed, the INO will house the world's most massive magnet, four times larger than the 12,500tonne magnet in the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.

History The possibility of a neutrino observatory located in India was discussed as early as 1989 during several meetings held that year. Since then this question comes up, off and on, in many discussions. The issue was raised again in the first meeting of the Neutrino physics and Cosmology working group during the Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-6) held at Chennai in January 2000 and it was decided then to collate concrete ideas for a neutrino detector. Further discussions took place in August 2000 during a meeting on Neutrino Physics at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, when a small group of neutrino physics enthusiasts started discussing the possibilities. The Neutrino 2001 meeting was held in the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai during February 2001 with the explicit objective of bringing the experimentalists and theorists in this field together. The INO collaboration was formed during this meeting. The first formal meeting of the collaboration was held in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, during September 6 and 7th, 2001 at which various subgroups were formed for studying the detector options and electronics, physics goals and simulations, and site survey. In 2002, a document was presented to the Department of Atomic Energy, (DAE) which laid out an ambitious goal of establishing an India-based Neutrino Observatory, outlining the physics goals, possible choices for the detector and their physics. Since then many new and fast paced developments


have taken place in neutrino physics. The award of the Nobel Prize in Physics (2002) to the pioneers in neutrino physics is a measure of the importance of this field. As a result of the support received from various research institutes, universities, the scientific community and the funding agency, the Department of Atomic Energy, a Neutrino Collaboration Group (NCG) was established to study the possibility of building an India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). The collaboration was assigned the task of doing the feasibility studies for which funds were made available by the DAE. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by the directors of the participating institutes on August 30, 2002 to enable a smooth functioning of the NCG during the feasibility period. The NCG has the goal of creating an underground neutrino laboratory with the long term goal of conducting decisive experiments in neutrino physics as also other experiments which require such a unique underground facility. On November 20, 2009, Ministry of Environment (India) Minister Jairam Ramesh in a letter to Anil Kakodkar, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy and Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission of India, denied permission for the Department of Atomic Energy to set up the Indiabased Neutrino Observatory (INO) project at Singara in Nilgiris, as it falls in the buffer zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR). Jairam Ramesh said that based on the report of Rajesh Gopal, AdditionalPrincipal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and Member-Secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (MS-NTCA), the Ministry cannot approve the Singara site. The report says: "The proposed project site falls in the buffer zone of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and is in close proximity to the core/critical tiger habitats of Bandipur and Mudumalai Tiger reserves. It is also an elephant corridor, facilitating elephant movement from the Western Ghats to the Eastern Ghats and vice-versa. The area is already disturbed on account of severe biotic pressure due to human settlements and resorts and that the construction phase of the project would involve transport of building materials through the highways passing through the core area 128


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept of the Bandipur and Mudmulai Tiger Reserves. Instead, he suggested an alternate site near Suruli Falls, Theni District in Tamil Nadu. The Minister said this site did not pose the same problems that Singara posed and environmental and forest clearances should not be a serious issue. He also assured the DAE that the Ministry would facilitate necessary approvals for the alternative location. Dr. Naba K. Mondal of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who is the spokesperson for the INO project said: "But Suruliyar too is in a reserved forest area that is dense and would require cutting down of trees, something that was not required at Singara. Can the government assure us that forest clearance for this site will be given," he asks. "Alternatively, we can move to the nearby Thevaram, which is about 20-30 km away from the Suruliyar falls. This forest area has only shrubs but there is no source of water here and water will have to be piped over a distance of 30 km,". On 18 October 2010, the Ministry of Environment & Forests approved both environment and forest clearance for setting up the observatory in the Bodi West Hills Reserved Forest in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu. The project is expected to be completed in 2015 at an estimated cost of $250 million.

Participating Institutes

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) spelling out the operational aspects of the project and the mode of utilisation of available funds was signed by seven primary project partners: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai,Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC), Kolkata, Harish Chandra Research Institute(HRI), A llahabad and Institute of Physics (IOP), Bhubaneswar. Thirteen other project participants include: Aligarh University, Aligarh, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Calcutta University (CU), Kolkata, Delhi University (DU), Delhi, University of Hawaii (UHW), Hawaii, Himachal Pradesh University(HPU), Shimla, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB), Mumbai, Indira Gandhi


Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, North Bengal University (NBU), Siliguri, Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, Physical Research Laboratory(PRL), Ahmedabad, Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Tamil Nadu and Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Sikkim.

Design The primary research instrument will consist of a 50,000 ton magnetized ironparticle physics calorimeter with glass Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) technology as the sensor elements. The INO design is mostly based on the monolith experiment that could not go beyond the proposal Stage. The detector was expected to start collecting data in the year 2012. The location of INO has attracted a lot of attention from the neutrino physics community as the distance between INO and CERN is very close to "Magic Baseline" - a distance at which the effect of the CP phase on the measurement of?13 is minimal. The project has been hit by lack of skilled man power and opposition by environmentalists. In 2008, INO started a graduate training program leading to Ph.D. Degree in High Energy Physics and Astronomy to deal with the shortage of particle physicists. The Primary goals of the INO are the following:— 1. Unambiguous and more precise determination of Neutrino oscillation parameters using atmospheric neutrinos. 2. Study of matter effects through electric charge identification, that may lead to the determination of the unknown sign of one of the mass differences. 3. Study of charge-conjugation and charge parity (CP) violation in the leptonic sector as well as possible charge-conjugation, parity, timereversal (CPT) violation studies. 4. Study of Kolar events, possible identification of very-high energy neutrinos and multi-muon events. The INO detector consists of 6 centimeters 129


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs (2.4 in) thick Iron plates as passive material, with RPCs in between as active material. A prototype of the INO detector with 14 layers, measuring 1m x 1m x 1m is already operational in the VECC, Kolkata. The 35 ton prototype is set up over ground to track cosmic muons.

Location The location of the site was supposed to be Singara 11°32'N 76°36'E 5.5 kilometers (3.4 mi) southwest of Masinagudi in the Nilgiri Hills of South India. The site has been changed due to protests from environmental groups. The INO will now be built at 9°57'14.299?N 77°16'47.561?E Bodi West Hills in Theni district, southern India. FUTUREGEN (2003) Future Gen is a US government project announced by President George W. Bush in 2003; its initial plan involved the construction of a near zero-emissions coal-fueled power plant to produce hydrogen and electricity while using carbon capture and storage. In December 2007, Mattoon Township, Coles County, Illinois northwest of Mattoon, Illinois was chosen as the site for the plant from among four finalists in Illinois and Texas. On January 29, 2008, the Department of Energy announced a restructuring of the FutureGen project, which was claimed necessary due to rising costs. In June 2008, the government announced a call for proposals to elicit commercial involvement in the restructuring. In 2010, after a number of setbacks, the city of Mattoon backed out of the project.

Original project

The original incarnation of FutureGen was as a public-private partnership to build the world's first near zero-emissions coal-fueled power plant. The 275-megawatt plant would be intended to prove the feasibility of producing electricity and hydrogen from coal while capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide underground. The Alliance intended to build the plant in Mattoon Township, Coles County,


Illinois northwest of Mattoon, Illinois, subject to necessary approvals (issuing a “Record of Decision”) by the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process. FutureGen was to be designed, developed and operated by the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, a nonprofit consortium of coal mining and electric utility companies formed to partner with the DOE on the FutureGen project. The project was still in the development stage when its funding was cancelled in January 2008. The Alliance decision of the location of the host site, subject to DOE's completing NEPA environmental reviews, was announced in December 2007 after a two-year bidding and review process. Construction was scheduled to begin in 2009, with full-scale plant operations to begin in 2012. The estimated gross project cost, including construction and operations, and excluding offsetting revenue, was $1.8 billion. The project was governed by a legally binding cooperative agreement between DOE and the Alliance.[9] Under the agreement, DOE was to provide 74% of the project’s cost, with private industry contributing the other 26%. The DOE also planned to solicit the financial support and participation of international governments in the FutureGen project, since by 2020 more than 60% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions are expected to come from developing countries. Foreign financial support was to offset a portion of DOE’s cost-share. As of January 2008, the foreign governments of China, India, Australia, South Korea,1 and Japan had expressed interest in participating and sharing the cost of the project. FutureGen was to sequester carbon dioxide emissions at a rate of one million metric tons per year for four years, which is the scale a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report cites as appropriate for proving sequestration. The MIT report also states that “the priority objective with respect to coal should be the successful large-scale demonstration of the technical, economic, and 130


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept environmental performance of the technologies that make up all of the major components of a large-scale integrated CCS system — capture, transportation and storage.” An injection field test similar to this was done in Norway. In March 2009 Washington Post reported that U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu expressed support for continuing the project using stimulus funds (after some changes that have not yet been specified) and making it a part of a larger portfolio of research plants developed in collaboration with other countries.

Alliance members

The FutureGen Industrial Alliance is a consortium of 10 power producers and electric utilities from around the globe. Company Anglo American Services (UK) Limited BHP Billiton Energy Coal Inc. Caterpillar Inc. China Huaneng Group CONSOL Energy Inc. E.ON U.S. LLC Foundation Coal Corporation Peabody Energy Corp. Rio Tinto Energy America Services Xstrata Coal Pty Limited

Headquarters London, UK

Melbourne, Australia Peoria, Illinois Beijing, China Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Louisville, Kentucky Linthicum Heights, Maryland St. Louis, Missouri Gillette, Wyoming Sydney, Australia

Former members Four companies initially a part of the FutureGen Industrial Alliance have since dropped out of the project.


Company American Electric Power Service Corp. Luminant PPL Energy Services Group, LLC Southern Company Services, Inc.

Headquarters Columbus, Ohio Dallas, Texas Allentown, Pennsylvania Atlanta, Georgia

Site selection Site selection for the FutureGen facility was based on a competitive process which began in May 2006. Seven states responded to the Site Request for Proposals with a total of 12 proposals. Proposals were reviewed against a set of environmental, technical, regulatory, and financial criteria with input from external technical advisors on power plant design and carbon sequestration. In July 2006, four candidate sites were selected for further review, including an environmental impact analysis as required by NEPA. DOE issued its Final Environmental impact statement (EIS) on November 8, 2007, which concluded that all four sites were acceptable from an environmental impact standpoint and all would move forward in the site evaluation process. EPA published a Notice of Availability (NOA) for the EIS in the Federal Register on November 16, 2007. The DOE is required by federal law to wait at least 30 days after the NOA release before issuing its final Record of Decision (ROD). The waiting period legally closed on December 17, 2007. DOE chose not to issue the ROD and advised the FutureGen Alliance to delay the final site selection announcement, which was scheduled to occur at the end of the 30-day waiting period. The Alliance chose to move ahead with the announcement, citing time, money, and a commitment to proposers to select the final site by year-end. "Every month of delay can add $10 million to the project's cost, solely due to inflation," said Michael Mudd, the Alliance's chief executive. The FutureGen Alliance announced the selection of Mattoon, Illinois as the host site on 131


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs December 18, 2007. According to the EIS, Mattoon, IL the site is located about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northwest of downtown Mattoon in the eastern part of Mattoon township section 8 on 1.8 km2 (440 acres) of former farm land. The carbon sequestration area is about 8,000 feet (2.4 km) below the ground. In July 2007, Illinois Public Act 095-0018 became law giving the state of Illinois ownership of and liability for the sequestered gases. Future plants based on FutureGen should qualify for several provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Technology overview FutureGen was intended to combine and test several new technologies in a single location, including coal gasification, emissions controls, hydrogen production, electricity generation, and carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS). Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) was the core technology behind FutureGen. IGCC power plants use two turbines – a gas and a steam turbine – to produce electric power more efficiently than pulverized coal plants. IGCC plants also make it easier to capture carbon dioxide for carbon sequestration. FutureGen was to capture carbon dioxide produced during the gasification process and pump it into deep rock formations thousands of feet under ground. FutureGen specifically targeted rock formations containing saline water, as these are one of the most abundant types of geologic formations that can be used to store carbon dioxide worldwide. A study by the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program estimates the storage capacity of these saline rock formations in the U.S. to be 2,970 gigatons of carbon dioxide, compared to a capacity of 77 gigatons of carbon dioxide for all other types of reservoirs, such as depleted gas fields. Focusing on rock formations with saline water was intended to help ensure that the lessons learned from the project are broadly transferable throughout the U.S. and around the world.

Challenges Maintaining the project schedule and keeping costs down were two major challenges with which


the DOE and the FutureGen Alliance grappled. The project had remained on schedule with the announcement of the host site before the end of 2007; however, a desire by DOE to restructure the project’s financial arrangement has brought the project to a halt. In December 2007, the DOE Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy James Slutz stated that projected cost overruns for the project "require a reassessment of FutureGen's design." And that "This will require restructuring FutureGen to maximize the role of private-sector innovation, facilitate the most productive publicprivate partnership, and prevent further cost escalation." The FutureGen Alliance wrote a letter to the Department of Energy’s Under Secretary C.H. “Bud” Albright Jr. stating that overall inflation and the rising cost of raw materials and engineering services are driving costs up on energy projects around the world. According to James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the market for steel, concrete and power plant components has “just gone through the roof globally”, and much of the reason is the construction of hundreds of new conventional coal plants. On January 11, 2008, the FutureGen Alliance sent a letter to the DOE offering to lower the government's portion of the project's costs. The initial plans had called for DOE to pay based on a percentage of the total cost, and their portion had risen from about $620 million to about $1.33 billion. The letter indicated that DOE's portion would now be $800 million. Risk management was a significant portion of the cost of the first FutureGen experimental implementation. FutureGen involved many complex never-before-solved technology problems. The risks also included significant health risks, if the untestedtechnology systems failed to work correctly. [edit]DOE decision controversies

Funding cancellation On January 29, 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it would pull its funding for the project, mostly due to higher than expected costs. The move is likely to delay the project as other 132


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept members seek the additional funds that the DOE was to provide. The sudden concern over cost after an Illinois site was chosen over those in Texas raised questions about the motives for the cancellation. Local and state officials in Illinois, including then Governor Rod Blagojevich, expressed frustration at the move, especially in light of the money and resources that the state had spent to attract the project. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois accused Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman of "cruel deception" of Illinoisans by "creating false hope in a FutureGen project which he has no intention of funding or supporting." Durbin claimed that "when the city of Mattoon, Illinois, was chosen over possible locations in Texas, the secretary of energy set out to kill FutureGen." Mattoon mayor David Cline said "one could question the motivation of the Department of Energy which was ready to move forward with the project until a site other than Texas was chosen." In March 2009, Congressional auditors determined that the DOE had miscalculated the government portion of the project's cost, overstating the amount by a half billion dollars. As a result, the Bush administration cited the project as having nearly doubled in cost when, in reality, it had increased by 39%. Secretary Bodman stated that with restructuring the FutureGen project, DOE plans "to equip multiple new clean-coal power plants with advanced CCS technology, instead of one demonstration plant. That will provide more electricity from multiple clean-coal plants, sequestering at least twice as much CO2 and providing for wider use and more rapid commercialization." Despite the cancellation of funding by the DOE, the FutureGen Alliance continues to move forward with the project, opening an office in Mattoon and planning to buy the land for the plant in August 2008, in partnership with a local group. Revised plan under new presidential administration. During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns, Sen. Barack Obama pledged his support to clean coal technologies, with plans to develop five commercial-scale coal plants equipped with CCS technology. In November 2008, Fred Palmer, senior vice president at Peabody Energy shared his outlook on FutureGen with the American Coalition


for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), saying that the FutureGen Alliance would "Make a concerted effort in the Obama administration to reinstate the project and get this built as originally planned." On June 12, 2009, the DOE announced a restart of design work for the FutureGen project. "Following the completion of the detailed cost estimate and fundraising activities," the press release states, "the Department of Energy and the FutureGen Alliance will make a decision either to move forward or to discontinue the project early in 2010." On August 5, 2010, the DOE announced a retooling of the FutureGen project, dubbed FutureGen 2.0. The revised plan includes retrofitting a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Meredosia, Illinois to demonstrate advanced oxy-combustion technology, and piping the carbon dioxide 175 miles to Mattoon for underground storage. Due to these changes, leaders in Mattoon decided to drop out of the FutureGen project. The Illinois sites vying for the underground storage portion of the project were in Christian, Douglas, Fayette, and Morgan counties, after sites in Adams and Pike counties were cut in December 2010. In February 2011, Morgan County was chosen for the sequestration site. Construction on the power plant and carbon dioxide storage site is expected for spring 2013. As of October 4, 2011, the plant detailed design package and cost estimate have been submitted to the DOE and the evaluation of them by the DOE should be completed by November 30, 2011. According to critics, including the Illinois Policy Institute, the plan presents major environmental and fiscal pitfalls. BIOETHICS Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy

Terminology The term Bioethics (Greek bios, life; ethos, behavior) was coined in 1927 by Fritz Jahr, who 133


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs "anticipated many of the arguments and discussions now current in biological research involving animals" in an article about the "bioethical imperative," as he called it, regarding the scientific use of animals and plants. Lolas, F. (2008). Bioethics and animal research: A personal perspective and a note on the contribution of Fritz Jahr. Fritz Jahr's 1927 concept of bioethics. In 1970, the American biochemist Van Rensselaer Potter also used the term with a broader meaning including solidarity towards the biosphere, thus generating a "global ethics," a discipline representing a link between biology, ecology, medicine and human values in order to attain the survival of both human beings and other animal species.

Purpose and scope The field of bioethics has addressed a broad swath of human inquiry, ranging from debates over the boundaries of life (e.g. abortion, euthanasia), Surrogacy to the allocation of scarce health care resources (e.g. organ donation, health care rationing) to the right to turn down medical care for religious or cultural reasons. Bioethicists often disagree among themselves over the precise limits of their discipline, debating whether the field should concern itself with the ethical evaluation of all questions involving biology and medicine, or only a subset of these questions. Some bioethicists would narrow ethical evaluation only to the morality of medical treatments or technological innovations, and the timing of medical treatment of humans. Others would broaden the scope of ethical evaluation to include the morality of all actions that might help or harm organisms capable of feeling fear.

Principles One of the first areas addressed by modern bioethicists was that of human experimentation. The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Researchwas initially established in 1974 to identify the basic ethical principles that should underlie the conduct of biomedical and behavioral research involving human subjects. However, the fundamental principles announced in the Belmont Report (1979)—namely, autonomy, beneficence and


justice—have influenced the thinking of bioethicists across a wide range of issues. Others have added nonmaleficence, human dignity and the sanctity of life to this list of cardinal values. Another important principle of bioethics is its placement of value on discussion and presentation. Numerous discussion based bioethics groups exist in universities across the United States to champion exactly such goals. Examples include The Ohio State Bioethics Society and the Bioethics Society of Cornell. Professional level versions of these organizations also exist. HYDROLOGIC CYCLE OR H 2O CYCLE The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or H2O cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth. Water can change states among liquid, vapor, and solid at various places in the water cycle. Although the balance of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time, individual water molecules can come and go, in and out of the atmosphere. The water moves from one reservoir to another, such as from river to ocean, or from the ocean to the atmosphere, by the physical processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and subsurface flow. In so doing, the water goes through different phases: liquid, solid, and gas. The hydrologic cycle involves the exchange of heat energy, which leads to temperature changes. For instance, in the process of evaporation, water takes up energy from the surroundings and cools the environment. Conversely, in the process of condensation, water releases energy to its surroundings, warming the environment. The water cycle figures significantly in the maintenance of life and ecosystems on Earth. Even as water in each reservoir plays an important role, the water cycle brings added significance to the presence of water on our planet. By transferring water from one reservoir to another, the water cycle purifies water, replenishes the land with freshwater, and transports minerals to different parts of the globe. It is also 134


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept involved in reshaping the geological features of the Earth, through such processes as erosion and sedimentation. In addition, as the water cycle also involves heat exchange, it exerts an influence on climate as well.

Description The sun, which drives the water cycle, heats water in oceans and seas. Water evaporates as water vapor into the air. Ice and snow can sublimate directly into water vapor. Evapotranspiration is watertranspired from plants and evaporated from the soil. Rising air currents take the vapor up into the atmosphere where cooler temperatures cause it to condense into clouds. Air currents move water vapor around the globe, cloud particles collide, grow, and fall out of the sky as precipitation. Some precipitation falls as snow or hail, sleet, and can accumulate as ice caps and glaciers, which can store frozen water for thousands of years. Most water falls back into the oceans or onto land as rain, where the water flows over the ground as surface runoff. A portion of runoff enters rivers in valleys in the landscape, with streamflow moving water towards the oceans. Runoff and groundwater are stored as freshwater in lakes. Not all runoff flows into rivers, much of it soaks into the ground asinfiltration. Some water infiltrates deep into the ground and replenishes aquifers, which store freshwater for long periods of time. Some infiltration stays close to the land surface and can seep back into surface-water bodies (and the ocean) as groundwater discharge. Some groundwater finds openings in the land surface and comes out as freshwater springs. Over time, the water returns to the ocean, where our water cycle started.

XX Processes Many different process lead to movements and phase changes in water

Precipitation Condensed water vapor that falls to the Earth's surface . Most precipitation occurs as rain, but also includes snow, hail, fog drip, graupel, and sleet. Approximately 505,000 km3 (121,000 cu mi) of water falls as precipitation each year, 398,000 km3


(95,000 cu mi) of it over the oceans.

Canopy interception The precipitation that is intercepted by plant foliage and eventually evaporates back to the atmosphere rather than falling to the ground.

Snowmelt The runoff produced by melting snow.

Runoff The variety of ways by which water moves across the land. This includes both surface runoff and channel runoff. As it flows, the water may seep into the ground, evaporate into the air, become stored in lakes or reservoirs, or be extracted for agricultural or other human uses.

Infiltration

The flow of water from the ground surface into the ground. Once infiltrated, the water becomes soil moisture or groundwater.

Subsurface flow

The flow of water underground, in the vadose zone and aquifers. Subsurface water may return to the surface (e.g. as a spring or by being pumped) or eventually seep into the oceans. Water returns to the land surface at lower elevation than where it infiltrated, under the force of gravity or gravity induced pressures. Groundwater tends to move slowly, and is replenished slowly, so it can remain in aquifers for thousands of years.

Evaporation

The transformation of water from liquid to gas phases as it moves from the ground or bodies of water into the overlying atmosphere. The source of energy for evaporation is primarily solar radiation. Evaporation often implicitly includes transpiration' from plants, though together they are specifically referred to as evapotranspiration. Total annual evapotranspiration amounts to approximately 505,000 km3 (121,000 cu mi) of water, 434,000 km3 (104,000 cu mi) of which evaporates from the oceans.

Sublimation

The state change directly from solid water (snow or ice) to water vapor. 135



Advection The movement of water — in solid, liquid, or vapor states — through the atmosphere. Without advection, water that evaporated over the oceans could not precipitate over land.

Condensation

The transformation of water vapor to liquid water droplets in the air, creating clouds and fog.

Transpiration

The release of water vapor from plants and soil into the air. Water vapor is a gas that cannot be see.

Residence times

Average reservoir residence times Reservoir Antarctica Oceans Glaciers Seasonal snow cover Soil moisture Groundwater: shallow Groundwater: deep Lakes (see lake retention time) Rivers Atmosphere

Average residence time 20,000 years 3,200 years 20 to 100 years 2 to 6 months 1 to 2 months 100 to 200 years 10,000 years 50 to 100 years 2 to 6 months 9 days

The residence time of a reservoir within the hydrologic cycle is the average time a water molecule will spend in that reservoir (see adjacent table). It is a measure of the average age of the water in that reservoir. Groundwater can spend over 10,000 years beneath Earth's surface before leaving. Particularly old groundwater is called fossil water. Water stored in the soil remains there very briefly, because it is spread thinly across the Earth, and is readily lost by evaporation, transpiration, stream flow, or groundwater recharge. After evaporating, the residence time in the atmosphere is about 9 days before condensing and falling to the Earth as precipitation. The major ice sheets - Antarctica and


Greenland - store ice for very long periods. Ice from Antarctica has been reliably dated to 800,000 years before present, though the average residence time is shorter. In hydrology, residence times can be estimated in two ways. The more common method relies on the principle of conservation of massand assumes the amount of water in a given reservoir is roughly constant. With this method, residence times are estimated by dividing the volume of the reservoir by the rate by which water either enters or exits the reservoir. Conceptually, this is equivalent to timing how long it would take the reservoir to become filled from empty if no water were to leave (or how long it would take the reservoir to empty from full if no water were to enter). An alternative method to estimate residence times, which is gaining in popularity for dating groundwater, is the use of isotopictechniques. This is done in the subfield of isotope hydrology.

CHANGES OVER

TIME

The water cycle describes the processes that drive the movement of water throughout the hydrosphere. However, much more water is "in storage" for long periods of time than is actually moving through the cycle. The storehouses for the vast majority of all water on Earth are the oceans. It is estimated that of the 332,500,000 mi3 (1,386,000,000 km3) of the world's water supply, about 321,000,000 mi3 (1,338,000,000 km3) is stored in oceans, or about 95%. It is also estimated that the oceans supply about 90% of the evaporated water that goes into the water cycle. During colder climatic periods more ice caps and glaciers form, and enough of the global water supply accumulates as ice to lessen the amounts in other parts of the water cycle. The reverse is true during warm periods. During the last ice age glaciers covered almost one-third of Earth's land mass, with the result being that the oceans were about 400 ft (122 m) lower than today. During the last global "warm spell," about 125,000 years ago, the seas were about 18 ft (5.5 m) higher than they are now. About three million years ago the oceans could have been up to 165 ft (50 m) higher. 136


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept The scientific consensus expressed in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Summary for Policymakers is for the water cycle to continue to intensify throughout the 21st century, though this does not mean that precipitation will increase in all regions. In subtropical land areas — places that are already relatively dry — precipitation is projected to decrease during the 21st century, increasing the probability of drought. The drying is projected to be strongest near the poleward margins of the subtropics (for example, the Mediterranean Basin, South Africa, southernAustralia, and the Southwestern United States). Annual precipitation amounts are expected to increase in near-equatorial regions that tend to be wet in the present climate, and also at high latitudes. These large-scale patterns are present in nearly all of the climate model simulations conducted at several international research centers as part of the 7th Assessment of the IPCC. There is now ample evidence that increased hydrologic variability and change in climate has and will continue have a profound impact on the water sector through the hydrologic cycle, water availability, water demand, and water allocation at the global, regional, basin, and local levels. Glacial retreat is also an example of a changing water cycle, where the supply of water to glaciers from precipitation cannot keep up with the loss of water from melting and sublimation. Glacial retreat since 1850 has been extensive. Human activities that alter the water cycle include: • Agriculture • industry • alteration of the chemical composition of the atmosphere • construction of dams • deforestation and afforestation • removal of groundwater from wells • water abstraction from rivers • urbanization

Effects on climate The water cycle is powered from solar energy.


86% of the global evaporation occurs from the oceans, reducing their temperature by evaporative cooling. Without the cooling, the effect of evaporation on the greenhouse effect would lead to a much higher surface temperature of 67 °C (153 °F), and a warmer planet. Aquifer drawdown or overdrafting and the pumping of fossil water increases the total amount of water in the hydrosphere that is subject to transpiration and evaporation thereby causing accretion in water vapour and cloud cover which are the primary absorbers of infrared radiation in the Earth's atmosphere. Adding water to the system has a forcing effect on the whole earth system, an accurate estimate of which hydrogeological fact is yet to be quantified.

Effects on biogeochemical cycling While the water cycle is itself a biogeochemical cycle, flow of water over and beneath the Earth is a key component of the cycling of other biogeochemicals. Runoff is responsible for almost all of the transport of eroded sediment and phosphorus from land to waterbodies. The salinity of the oceans is derived from erosion and transport of dissolved salts from the land. Cultural eutrophication of lakes is primarily due to phosphorus, applied in excess to agricultural fields in fertilizers, and then transported overland and down rivers. Both runoff and groundwater flow play significant roles in transporting nitrogen from the land to waterbodies. The dead zone at the outlet of the Mississippi River is a consequence of nitrates from fertilizer being carried off agricultural fields and funnelled down the river system to the Gulf of Mexico. Runoff also plays a part in the carbon cycle, again through the transport of eroded rock and soil.

Slow loss over geologic time

The hydrodynamic wind within the upper portion of a planet's atmosphere allows light chemical elements such as Hydrogen to move up to the exobase, the lower limit of the exosphere, where the gases can then reach escape velocity, entering outer space without impacting other particles of gas. This type of gas loss from a planet into space is known as planetary wind. Planets with hot lower 137


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs atmospheres could result in humid upper atmospheres that accelerate the loss of hydrogen. THE CARBON CYCLE The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere,pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. It is one of the most important cycles of the earth and allows for carbon to be recycled and reused throughout the biosphere and all of its organisms.[citation needed]. The carbon cycle was initially discovered by Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier, and popularized byHumphry Davy. It is now usually thought of as including the following major reservoirs of carbon interconnected by pathways of exchange: • The atmosphere • The terrestrial biosphere, which is usually defined to include fresh water systems and non-living organic material, such as soil carbon. • The oceans, including dissolved inorganic carbon and living and non-living marine biota, • The sediments including fossil fuels. • The Earth's interior, carbon from the Earth's mantle and crust is released to the atmosphere and hydrosphere by volcanoes and geothermal systems. The annual movements of carbon, the carbon exchanges between reservoirs, occur because of various chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes. The ocean contains the largest active pool of carbon near the surface of the Earth, but the deep ocean part of this pool does not rapidly exchange with the atmosphere in the absence of an external influence, such as a black smoker or an uncontrolled deep-water oil well leak. The global carbon budget is the balance of the exchanges (incomes and losses) of carbon between the carbon reservoirs or between one specific loop (e.g., atmosphere ? biosphere) of the carbon cycle. An examination of the carbon budget of a pool or


reservoir can provide information about whether the pool or reservoir is functioning as a source or sink for carbon dioxide.

The Atmosphere Carbon exists in the Earth's atmosphere primarily as the gas carbon dioxide (CO2). Although it is a small percentage of the atmosphere (approximately 0.04% on a molar basis), it plays a vital role in supporting life. Other gases containing carbon in the atmosphere are methane and chlorofluorocarbons(the latter is entirely anthropogenic). Trees and other green plants such as grass convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates during photosynthesis, releasing oxygen in the process. This process is most prolific in relatively new forests where tree growth is still rapid. The effect is strongest in deciduous forests during spring leafing out. This is visible as an annual signal in the Keeling curve of measured CO2 concentration. Northern hemisphere spring predominates, as there is far more land in temperate latitudes in that hemisphere than in the southern. • Forests store 86% of the planet's terrestrial above-ground carbon and 73% of the planet's soil carbon. • At the surface of the oceans towards the poles, seawater becomes cooler and more carbonic acid is formed as CO2 becomes more soluble. This is coupled to the ocean's thermohaline circulationwhich transports dense surface water into the ocean's interior (see the entry on the solubility pump). • In upper ocean areas of high biological productivity, organisms convert reduced carbon to tissues, or carbonates to hard body parts such as shells and tests. These are, respectively, oxidized (soft-tissue pump) and redissolved (carbonate pump) at lower average levels of the ocean than those at which they formed, resulting in a downward flow of carbon (see entry on the biological pump). • The weathering of silicate rock (see carbonatesilicate cycle). Carbonic acid reacts with 138


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept

•

• • •

•

•

weathered rock to produce bicarbonate ions. The bicarbonate ions produced are carried to the ocean, where they are used to make marine carbonates. Unlike dissolved CO2 in equilibrium or tissues which decay weathering does not move the carbon into a reservoir from which it can readily return to the atmosphere. In 1958, atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa was about 320 parts per million (ppm), and in 2011 it is about 391ppm. Future CO2 emission can be calculated by the kaya identity. Carbon is released into the atmosphere in several ways: Through the respiration performed by plants and animals. This is an exothermic reaction and it involves the breaking down of glucose (or other organic molecules) into carbon dioxide and water. Through the decay of animal and plant matter. Fungi and bacteria break down the carbon compounds in dead animals and plants and convert the carbon to carbon dioxide if oxygen is present, ormethane if not. Through combustion of organic material which oxidizes the carbon it contains, producing carbon dioxide (and other things, like water vapor). Burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum products, and natural gas releases carbon that has been stored in the geosphere for millions of years. Burning agrofuels also releases carbon dioxide which has been stored for only a few years or less.

• Production of cement. Carbon dioxide is released when limestone (calcium carbonate) is heated to produce lime (calcium oxide), a component of cement. • At the surface of the oceans where the water becomes warmer, dissolved carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere. • Volcanic eruptions and metamorphism release gases into the atmosphere. Volcanic gases are


primarily water vapor, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. The carbon dioxide released is roughly equal to the amount removed by silicate weathering;[citation needed] so the two processes, which are the chemical reverse of each other, sum to roughly zero, and do not affect the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide on time scales of less than about 100,000 years.

The Biosphere Carbon is an essential part of life on Earth. About half the dry weight of most living organisms is carbon. It plays an important role in the structure, biochemistry, and nutrition of all living cells. Living biomass holds about 575 gigatons of carbon, most of which is wood. Soils hold approximately 1,500 gigatons, mostly in the form of organic carbon, with perhaps a third of that inorganic forms of carbon such as calcium carbonate. • Autotrophs are organisms that produce their own organic compounds using carbon dioxide from the air or water in which they live. To do this they require an external source of energy. Almost all autotrophs use solar radiation to provide this, and their production process is called photosynthesis. A small number of autotrophs exploit chemical energy sources in a process calledchemosynthesis. The most important autotrophs for the carbon cycle are trees in forests on land and phytoplankton in the Earth's oceans. Photosynthesis follows the reaction 6CO2 + 6H2O ? C6H12O6 + 6O2. • Carbon is transferred within the biosphere as heterotrophs feed on other organisms or their parts (e.g., fruits). This includes the uptake of dead organic material (detritus) by fungi and bacteria forfermentation or decay. • Most carbon leaves the biosphere through respiration. When oxygen is present, aerobic respiration occurs, which releases carbon dioxide into the surrounding air or water, following the reaction C6H12O6 + 6O2 ? 139


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs 6CO 2 + 6H 2 O. Otherwise, anaerobic respiration occurs and releases methane into the surrounding environment, which eventually makes its way into the atmosphere or hydrosphere (e.g., as marsh gas or flatulence). • Burning of biomass (e.g. forest fires, wood used for heating, anything else organic) can also transfer substantial amounts of carbon to the atmosphere • Carbon may also be circulated within the biosphere when dead organic matter (such as peat) becomes incorporated in the geosphere. Animal shells of calcium carbonate, in particular, may eventually become limestone through the process of sedimentation. • Much remains to be learned about the cycling of carbon in the deep ocean. For example, a recent discovery is that larvacean mucus houses (commonly known as "sinkers") are created in such large numbers that they can deliver as much carbon to the deep ocean as has been previously detected by sediment traps. Because of their size and composition, these houses are rarely collected in such traps, so most biogeochemical analyses have erroneously ignored them. Carbon storage in the biosphere is influenced by a number of processes on different time-scales: while net primary productivity follows a diurnal and seasonal cycle, carbon can be stored up to several hundreds of years in trees and up to thousands of years in soils. Changes in those long term carbon pools (e.g. through de- or afforestation or through temperature-related changes in soil respiration) may thus affect global climate change.

The Hydrosphere Present day" (1990s) sea surfacedissolved inorganic carbonconcentration (from the GLODAP climatology). The oceans contain around 36,000 gigatonnes of carbon, mostly in the form of bicarbonate ion


(over 90%, with most of the remainder being carbonate). Extreme storms such as hurricanes and typhoons bury a lot of carbon, because they wash away so much sediment. For instance, a research team reported in the July 2008 issue of the journal Geology that a single typhoon in Taiwan buries as much carbon in the ocean—in the form of sediment—as all the other rains in that country all year long combined. Inorganic carbon, that is carbon compounds with no carbon-carbon or carbonhydrogen bonds, is important in its reactions within water. This carbon exchange becomes important in controlling pH in the ocean and can also vary as a source or sink for carbon. Carbon is readily exchanged between the atmosphere and ocean. In regions of oceanic upwelling, carbon is released to the atmosphere. Conversely, regions of downwelling transfer carbon (CO2) from the atmosphere to the ocean. When CO2 enters the ocean, it participates in a series of reactions which are locally in equilibrium: Solution: CO2 (atmospheric) ? CO2 (dissolved) Conversion to carbonic acid: CO2 (dissolved) + H2O ? H2CO 3 First ionization: H2CO 3 ? H+ + HCO3- (bicarbonate ion) Second ionization: HCO3- ? H+ + CO32- (carbonate ion) This set of reactions, which of each has its own equilibrium coefficient, determines the form that inorganic carbon takes in the oceans. The coefficients, which have been determined empirically for ocean water, are themselves functions of temperature, pressure, and the presence of other ions (especially borate). In the ocean the equilibria strongly favor bicarbonate. Since this ion is three steps removed from atmospheric CO2, the level of inorganic carbon storage in the ocean does not have a proportion of unity to the atmospheric partial pressure of CO2. The factor for the ocean is about ten: that is, for a 10% increase in atmospheric CO2, oceanic storage (in equilibrium) increases by about 1%, with the exact factor dependent on local 140


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept conditions. This buffer factor is often called the "Revelle Factor", after Roger Revelle. In the oceans, dissolved carbonate can combine with dissolved calcium to precipitate solid calcium carbonate, CaCO3, mostly as the shells of microscopic organisms. When these organisms die, their shells sink and accumulate on the ocean floor. Over time these carbonate sediments form limestone which is the largest reservoir of carbon in the carbon cycle. The dissolved calcium in the oceans comes from the chemical weathering of calcium-silicate rocks, during which carbonic and other acids in groundwater react with calcium-bearing minerals liberating calcium ions to solution and leaving behind a residue of newly formed aluminium-rich clay minerals and insoluble minerals such as quartz. The flux or absorption of carbon dioxide into the world's oceans is influenced by the presence of widespread viruses within ocean water, that infect many species of bacteria. The resulting bacterial deaths spawn a sequence of events that lead to greatly enlarged respiration of carbon dioxide, enhancing the role of the oceans as a carbon sink.

Global Carbon Project

Global carbon dioxide emissions, 1800 to 2007. The Global Carbon Project (GCP) was established in 2001. The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes. The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle. The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases. The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International GeosphereBiosphere Programme, the World Climate Programme, the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas, under the Earth System Science Partnership. In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2% annually from 2000. At the time, the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that "This is a very worrying sign. It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions


growth and that effective caps are urgently needed,". A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geocience revealed that the world's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide. On December 5th, 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually. The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions, the report found. VACCINATION AND IMMUNIZATION Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material (a vaccine) to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens. The efficacy of vaccination has been widely studied and verified; for example, the influenza vaccine, the HPV vaccine, and the chicken pox vaccine among others. In general, vaccination is considered to be the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases. The active agent of a vaccine may be intact but inactivated (non-infective) or attenuated (with reduced infectivity) forms of the causative pathogens, or purified components of the pathogen that have been found to be highly immunogenic (e.g., the outer coat proteins of a virus). Toxoids are produced for the immunization against toxin-based diseases, such as the modification of tetanospasmin toxin oftetanus to remove its toxic effect but retain its immunogenic effect. Smallpox was likely the first disease people tried to prevent by purposely inoculating themselves with other types of infections. In 1718, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu reported that the Turks had a tradition of deliberately inoculating themselves with fluid taken from mild cases of smallpox, and that she had inoculated her own children. Before 1796 when British physician Edward Jenner tested the possibility of using the cowpox vaccine as an immunization for smallpox in humans for the first time, at least six people had done the same several 141


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs years earlier: a person whose identity is unknown, England, (about 1771); a Mrs. Sevel, Germany (about 1772); a Mr. Jensen, Germany (about 1770); Benjamin Jesty, England, in 1774; a Mrs. Rendall, England (about 1782); and Peter Plett, Germany, in 1791. The word vaccination was first used by Edward Jenner in 1796. Louis Pasteur furthered the concept through his pioneering work in microbiology. Vaccination (Latin: vacca—cow) is so named because the first vaccine was derived from a virus affecting cows—the relatively benign cowpox virus— which provides a degree of immunity to smallpox, a contagious and deadly disease. In common speech, 'vaccination' and 'immunization' in general have the same colloquial meaning. This distinguishes it from inoculation, which uses unweakened live pathogens, although in common usage either is used to refer to an immunization. The word "vaccination" was originally used specifically to describe the injection of smallpox vaccine. Vaccination efforts have been met with some controversy since their inception, on scientific, ethical, political, medical safety, religious, and other grounds. In rare cases, vaccinations can injure people and, in the United States, they may receive compensation for those injuries under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Early success and compulsion brought widespread acceptance, and mass vaccination campaigns were undertaken, which are credited with greatly reducing the incidence of many diseases in numerous geographic regions.

Mechanism of Function In the generic sense, the process of artificial induction of immunity, in an effort to protect against infectious disease, works by 'priming' the immune system with an 'immunogen'. Stimulating immune response, via use of an infectious agent, is known as immunization. V accinations involve the administration of one or more immunogens, which can be administered in several forms. Some vaccines are administered after the


patient already has contracted a disease. Vaccinia given after exposure to smallpox, within the first three days, is reported to attenuate the disease considerably, and vaccination up to a week after exposure likely offers some protection from disease or may modify the severity of disease. The first rabies immunization was given by Louis Pasteurto a child after he was bitten by a rabid dog. Subsequent to this, it was found that proper post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) of potential rabies cases within 14 days infection provides complete protection against the disease. Other examples include experimental AIDS, cancer and Alzheimer's disease vaccines. The essential empiricism behind such immunizations is that the vaccine triggers an immune response more rapidly than the natural infection itself. Most vaccines are given by hypodermic injection as they are not absorbed reliably through the intestines. Live attenuated polio, some typhoid and some cholera vaccines are given orally in order to produce immunity based in the bowel.

Adjuvants and Preservatives

Vaccines typically contain one or more adjuvants, used to boost the immune response. Tetanus toxoid, for instance, is usually adsorbed onto alum. This presents the antigen in such a way as to produce a greater action than the simple aqueous tetanus toxoid. People who get an excessive reaction to adsorbed tetanus toxoid may be given the simple vaccine when time for a booster occurs. In the preparation for the 1990 Gulf campaign, Pertussis vaccine (not acellular) was used as an adjuvant for Anthrax vaccine. This produces a more rapid immune response than giving only the Anthrax, which is of some benefit if exposure might be imminent. They may also contain preservatives, which are used to prevent contamination with bacteria or fungi. Until recent years, the preservative thiomersal was used in many vaccines that did not contain live virus. As of 2005, the only childhood vaccine in the U.S. that contains thiomersal in greater than trace amounts is the influenza vaccine, which is currently recommended only for children with certain risk 142


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept factors. Single-dose Influenza vaccines supplied in the UK do not list Thiomersal (its UK name) in the ingredients. Preservatives may be used at various stages of production of vaccines, and the most sophisticated methods of measurement might detect traces of them in the finished product, as they may in the environment and population as a whole.

Vaccination versus inoculation

Many times these words are used interchangeably, as if they were synonyms. In fact, they are different things. As doctor Byron Plant explains: "Vaccination is the more commonly used term, which actually consists of a "safe" injection of a sample taken from a cow suffering from cowpox... Inoculation, a practice probably as old as the disease itself, is the injection of the variola virus taken from a pustule or scab of a smallpox sufferer into the superficial layers of the skin, commonly on the upper arm of the subject. Often inoculation was done "arm to arm" or less effectively "scab to arm"... Vaccination began in the 18th century with the work of Edward Jenner.

Types

All vaccinations work by presenting a foreign antigen to the immune system in order to evoke an immune response, but there are several ways to do this. The four main types that are currently in clinical use are as follows: 1. An inactivated vaccine consists of virus or bacteria that are grown in culture and then killed using a method such as heat or formaldehyde. Although the virus or bacteria particles are destroyed and cannot replicate, the virus capsid proteins or bacterial wall are intact enough to be recognized and remembered by the immune system and evoke a response. When manufactured correctly, the vaccine is not infectious, but improper inactivation can result in intact and infectious particles. Since the properly produced vaccine does not reproduce, booster shots are required periodically to reinforce the immune response. 2. In an attenuated vaccine, live virus or bacteria with very low virulence are administered.


They will replicate, but locally or very slowly. Since they do reproduce and continue to present antigen to the immune system beyond the initial vaccination, boosters may be required less often. These vaccines may be produced by passaging, for example, adapting a virus into different host cell cultures, such as in animals, or at suboptimal temperatures, allowing selection of less virulent strains, or by mutagenesis or targeted deletions in genes required for virulence. There is a small risk of reversion to virulence, this risk is smaller in vaccines with deletions. Attenuated vaccines also cannot be used by immunocompromised individuals. Reversions of virulence were described for a few attenuated viruses of chickens (infectious bursal disease virus, avian infectious bronchitis virus, avian infectious laryngotracheitis virus, avian metapneumovirus. 3. Virus-like particle vaccines consist of viral protein(s) derived from the structural proteins of a virus. These proteins can self-assemble into particles that resemble the virus from which they were derived but lack viral nucleic acid, meaning that they are not infectious. Because of their highly repetitive, multivalent structure, virus-like particles are typically more immunogenic than subunit vaccines (described below). The human papillomavirus and Hepatitis B virus vaccines are two virus-like particle-based vaccines currently in clinical use. 4. A subunit vaccine presents an antigen to the immune system without introducing viral particles, whole or otherwise. One method of production involves isolation of a specific protein from a virus or bacterium (such as a bacterial toxin) and administering this by itself. A weakness of this technique is that isolated proteins may have a different three-dimensional structure than the protein in its normal context, and will induce antibodies that may not recognize the infectious organism. In addition, subunit vaccines often elicit weaker antibody responses than the other classes of vaccines. A number of other vaccine strategies are under experimental investigation. These include DNA vaccination and recombinant viral vector 143



Human Vaccines Viral diseases Virus Hepatitis A virus Hepatitis B virus Human papilloma virus Influenza

Diseases or conditions Hepatitis A

Vaccine(s)

Brands

Hepatitis A vaccine

Havrix, Avaxim

Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B vaccine

Engerix-B

HPV vaccine

Cervarix, Gardasil

Influenza vaccine

FluMist, Fluzone, Influvac, Vaxigrip virus

Cervical cancer, Genital warts, anogenital cancers Influenza

Japanese encephalitis virus Measles virus

Japanese encephalitis

Mumps virus

Mumps

Polio virus Rabies virus Rotavirus Rubella virus

Poliomyelitis Rabies Rotaviral gastroenteritis Rubella

Varicella zoster virus

Chickenpox, Shingles

Variola virus Yellow fever virus

Smallpox Yellow fever

Measles

Japanese encephalitis vaccine MMR vaccine, MMRV vaccine MMR vaccine, MMRV vaccine Polio vaccine

Priorix Priorix

Rotavirus vaccine

Rotateq, Rotarix

MMR vaccine, MMRV vaccine Varicella vaccine, Shingles vaccine, MMRV vaccine Smallpox vaccine Yellow Fever vaccine

Priorix Varivax, Zostavax

Bacterial Diseases Virus

Diseases or conditions

Vaccine(s)

Brands

Bacillus anthracis Bordetella pertussis Clostridium tetani Corynebacterium diphtheriae

Anthrax Whooping cough Tetanus Diphtheria

Anthrax vaccines DPT vaccine DPT vaccine DPT vaccine

Boostrix, Adacel Boostrix, Adacel Boostrix, Adacel


144


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept Coxiella burnetii Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) Mycobacterium tuberculosis Neisseria meningitidis

Q fever Epiglottitis, meningitis, pneumonia Tuberculosis

Salmonella typhi Streptococcus pneumoniae

Meningococcal meningitis Typhoid fever Pneumococcal pneumonia

Vibrio cholerae

Cholera

IMMUNIZATION, OR IMMUNISATION, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an agent (known as the immunogen). When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body (non-self), it will orchestrate an immune response, but it can also develop the ability to quickly respond to a subsequent encounter (through immunological memory). This is a function of the adaptive immune system. Therefore, by exposing an animal to an immunogen in a controlled way, its body can learn to protect itself: this is called active immunization. The most important elements of the immune system that are improved by immunization are the B cells (and the antibodies they produce) and T cells.Memory B cell and memory T cells are responsible for a swift response to a second encounter with a foreign molecule. Passive immunization is when these elements are introduced directly into the body, instead of when the body itself has to make these elements. Immunization is done through various techniques, most commonly vaccination. Vaccines against microorganisms that cause diseases can prepare the body's immune system, thus helping to fight or prevent an infection. The fact that mutations can cause cancer cells to produce proteins or other molecules that are unknown to the body forms the theoretical basis for therapeutic cancer vaccines. Other molecules can be used for immunization as


Hib vaccine Tuberculosis (BCG) vaccine Meningococcal vaccine Typhoid vaccine Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine Cholera vaccine

Hiberix

Neisvac C, Meningitec Typhim Vi, Typherix Pneumovax, Prevenar

Dukoral

well, for example in experimental vaccines against nicotine (NicVAX) or the hormone ghrelin (in experiments to create an obesity vaccine). Active immunization/vaccination has been named one of the "Ten Great Public Health Achievements in the 20th Century".

Passive and active immunization Immunization can be achieved in an active or passive manner: vaccination is an active form of immunization.

Active immunization Active immunization entails the introduction of a foreign molecule into the body, which causes the body itself to generate immunity against the target. This immunity comes from the T cells and the B cells with their antibodies. Active immunization can occur naturally when a person comes in contact with, for example, a microbe. If the person has not yet come into contact with the microbe and has no pre-made antibodies for defense (like in passive immunization), the person becomes immunized. The immune system will eventually create antibodies and other defenses against the microbe. The next time, the immune response against this microbe can be very efficient; this is the case in many of the childhood infections that a person only contracts once, but then is immune. Artificial active immunization is where the microbe, or parts of it, are injected into the person 145


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs before they are able to take it in naturally. If whole microbes are used, they are pre-treated, Attenuated vaccine. The importance of immunization is so great that the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has named it one of the "Ten Great Public Health Achievements in the 20th Century".

Passive immunization

Passive immunization is where presynthesized elements of the immune system are transferred to a person so that the body does not need to produce these elements itself. Currently, antibodies can be used for passive immunization. This method of immunization begins to work very quickly, but it is short lasting, because the antibodies are naturally broken down, and if there are no B cells to produce more antibodies, they will disappear. Passive immunization occurs physiologically, when antibodies are transferred from mother to fetus during pregnancy, to protect the fetus before and shortly after birth. Artificial passive immunization is normally administered by injection and is used if there has been a recent outbreak of a particular disease or as an emergency treatment for toxicity (for example, fortetanus). The antibodies can be produced in animals ("serum therapy") although there is a high chance of anaphylactic shock because of immunity against animal serum itself. Thus, humanized antibodies produced in vitro by cell culture are used instead if available. NANO TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA Nanotechnology, which deals with understanding and control of matter at dimension of roughly 100 nm and below, has a crosssectoral application and an interdisciplinary orientation. At this scale, the physical, chemical and biological properties of materials differ from the properties of individual atoms and molecules or bulk matter, which enable novel applications. Nanotechnology research and development is directed towards understanding and creating improved materials, devices and systems that exploit these properties as they are discovered and characterized.


There are many applications of nano technology such as in the area of medicine, chemistry and nvironment, energy, agriculture, information and communication, heavy industry and consumer goods. he alleged potential of this technology has garnered the attention of both developed and developing ountries across the globe. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has listed it as one of six priority reas; it is one of the themes in the EU Framework Program for Research and Technological Development n Europe; and it has been the focus of research in countries worldwide. Globally, investments have been ade, nanotechnology programmes initiated and research and development has commenced. It is observed hat US, Japan, and Germany dominate the current R&D effort in nanotechnology with the country focus largely based on their own expertise and needs. Globally, there has been an increase in expenditure by both governments and private companies in nanotechnology developments. Total global expenditure public + private) in nanotechnology R&D in 2007 amounted to $13.5 billion, up 14% from in 2006. xpenditure by corporations in nanotechnology R&D in 2007 witnessed a 23% increase over 2006 to each $6.6 billion, passing government spending for the first time. At the commercial level, the impact of nanotechnology, is evident in three major industry sectors, viz., materials and manufacturing (coatings and composites for products like automobiles and buildings), electronics (displays and batteries) and ealth care and life sciences (pharmaceutical applications). According to the Woodrow Wilson nternational Center for Scholars’ Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (2009), there are more than 1000 company-identified nano technology products on the market, the majority being roduced by companies based in USA. The categorisation of nanotechnology products indicates a oncentration in the fields of health and fitness products (cosmetics, clothing, personal care and sporting equipment) (Figure 1.1). The analysis of the product category suggests that nanotechnology mainly mpacts the consumer goods industries. An estimate by Lux Research indicates that nanotechnology146


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Concept erived revenues will attain 15% of projected global manufacturing output ($2.6 trillion) in 2014 as ompared to 0.1% in 2006 ($50 billion). The emergence of nanotechnology in India has witnessed the ngagement of a diverse set of players, each with their own agenda and role. Nanotechnology in India is a overnment led initiative. Industry participation has very recently originated. Nanotechnology R&D arring few exceptions is largely being ensued at public funded universities as well as research institutes. An overview of the key players engaged in nanotechnology in India. Given the enabling nature of nanotechnology and ability to develop along with existing technologies, it has the potential to be utilised as a tool to address key development related challenges in diverse sectors like energy, water, agriculture, health, environment and the like. Enabling energy storage, production and conversion within renewable energy frameworks has been cited as the primary area where nanotechnology applications might aid developing countries. Nanotechnology interventions might be sought at specific junctures to improve quantity and quality of water and wastewater treatment systems. Enhancement of agricultural productivity has been identified as a critical area of nanotechnology application nanotechnology for attaining the Millennium Development Goals. In light of the developments worldwide hailing nanotechnology as a technology with the potential of addressing a number of developing country needs, India has sought to promote nanotechnology applications in sectors that are likely to have a wide impact, and influence the course of future development in the country. Sectors such as health, energy and environment have received greater attention by various technology departments in the government (DST, DBT and SERC). Figure 1.3 shows the distribution of sponsored projects from 2006 to 2008 across key sectors. Department of Science and Technology (DST), the chief agency engaged in the development of nanotechnology, initiated India’s principal programme, the Nanoscience and Technology Mission (NSTM) in 2007, with an allocation of Rupees 1000 crores for a period of five


years. The five-year programme followed the flagship initiative, the Nanoscience and Technology Initiative (NSTI) that was in operation from 2001–06. Close to 200 projects have been undertaken in the NSTI and NSTM since 2002 (Figure 1.4). The DST has also set up ‘Centers of Excellence (CoE) for Nanoscience and Technology’ established under the NSTI to undertake R&D to develop specific applications in a fixed period of time. On the whole the 19 CoE have been spread across 14 distinct institutions (Figure 1.5). These CoE have been set up primarily at those institutes that have either been engaging in nano technology based R&D prior to their establishment or have developed the resources to do so. Aside DST, several other agencies with diverse mandates are also actively engaged in supportingnanotechnology in the national arena. DBT (Department of Biotechnology) is supporting research in nano technology and the lifesciences. CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), a network of 38 laboratories that engages in scientific and industrial R&D for socioeconomic benefit has also commissioned R&D in nanotechnology in diverse areas. SERC (Science and Engineering Research Council) too has aided projects on nanotechnology. Support for these projects has been through its general R&D schemes for basic science and engineering science India’s International Collaborations Several bilateral collaborations emerged in nanoscience and technology, as it was a part of nearly all the S&T agreements between India and other countries. Initiatives for joint R&D have figured prominently with Indian institutes engaging in projects of similar kind in the US, EU, Japan, Taiwan and Russia. The S&T departments of Brazil, South Africa and India have embarked on a trilateral initiative to developed collaborative programmes in several common areas of interest, and nanotechnology being one of them. Other initiatives include Science and Technology Initiatives with Indian diaspora – Scientists and Technologists of Indian Origin Abroad (STIOs) for encouraging networking between Indian scientists and scientists and technologists of Indian origin that are based abroad. The International Science and Technology 147


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs Directorate (ISAD) of the CSIR that aims to strengthen cooperation between CSIR and international institutions has facilitated workshops and collaborative projects with international partners like South Africa, France, South Korea, China, Japan in the area of nanoscience and technology. Another forum for international collaboration is the EuroIndia Net set up under the FP6 between EU and India

to encourage collaborations between scientists from the two regions in the area of nanotechnology. A memorandum of understanding also has been signed between India and UNESCO to establish a Regional Centre for Education and Training in Biotechnology, where one of the focus areas is on nanobiotechnology.

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Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current

Science & Technology Current

1. DEFENCE, SPACE & NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor ‘has Independent Safety Mechanisms’ The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), under construction at Kalpakkam, near Chennai, is “a unique reactor” which does not require water for emergency cooling of its nuclear fuel core in the case of an accident, said Baldev Raj, who laid down office as Director, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam. The 500 MWe PFBR will be commissioned in 2012. (The PFBR will use plutonium-uranium oxide as fuel, and liquid sodium as coolant. If sodium comes into contact with water, it will catch fire. At Fukushima in Japan in March, four reactors’ nuclear fuel core could not be cooled because the station suffered a black-out after the tsunami, which also knocked out the pumps and the diesel generator sets. So water could not be pumped for cooling the fuel core.) S.C. Chetal, who took over as IGCAR Director, explained that in the case of sodium fire in an open place, sodium bicarbonate — a dry chemical powder — would be used to douse the fire. If sodium caught fire in an enclosed place, nitrogen would be injected to extinguish it. Sodium fire was milder than oil catching fire, Mr. Chetal said.

ISRO Unveils Supercomputer The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has built a supercomputer, which will be India’s fastest in terms of theoretical peak performance of 220 TeraFLOPS (220 Trillion Floating Point Operations per second). Named Satish Dhawan Supercomputing Facility, it is located at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.


The new graphic processing unit (GPU)-based supercomputer, which has been named SAGA-220 (Super-computer for Aerospace with GPU Architecture-220 TeraFLOPS), would be used for solving complex aerospace problems, said an ISRO press release. The supercomputer was fully designed and built by the VSSC, using commercially available hardware and open source software components. Its total cost was about Rs.14 crore. ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan inaugurated it.

Army to Set up Jungle Warfare Training Area The Army is awaiting clearance from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to conduct training in jungle warfare to a brigade size force in Chhattisgarh. The land for setting up the training area, also called the “manoeuvre range,” has been identified at Narainpur in Chhattisgarh and approval accorded in principle. The area under the Central Command, which encompasses Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, and parts of Madhya Pradesh, were affected by left wing extremism, but presently the Army was not mandated to operate against such elements. Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand were the other two States in the Command. The Army’s role in this context was advisory and providing assistance in capacity building to the Union government. Though the Army was not involved in anti-Naxal operations, it had imparted training to about 50,000 police and paramilitary force personnel in such operations. The Army was trying to set up training areas since 2006 as the existing ones were shrinking owing to rapid urbanisation.

Army-Air Force Joint Exercise begins A six-day joint exercise of the Army and the Air Force begin in the deserts of Bikaner and Suratgarh 149


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs near the Pakistan border. ‘Vijayee Bhava’ will involve tank to tank wars, helicopter operations and others, Army officials said. Personnel from both the services have been practising for the past 15 days for the drill. According to the Army, it conducted 10 major exercises near the Pakistan border in the last six years and this exercise will boost the synergy between the defence forces.

Resourcesat-2 Images Presented to Manmohan High quality images beamed by Resourcesat2 of the Indian landmass and other countries were presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by top officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation. The images covered New Delhi, Surat, Bareilly and Dubai. The three cameras aboard Resourcesat-2 were operated from April 28 and several hundreds of images, covering India and many parts of the world, were acquired. The PSLV- C16 lifted off from at Sriharikota on April 20 and put Resourcesat-2, Youthsat (a joint India-Russian satellite) and X-Sat from the Nangyang Technological University of Singapore.

Manmohan wants Safety Measures Upgraded at Nuclear Facilities Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday directed the Department of Atomic Energy and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board to upgrade safety measures at the nuclear facilities in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis. At a special meeting to review the country’s disaster preparedness in the light of the disasters the tsunami caused in Japan in March, Dr. Singh, who is also Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), asked the two agencies to look at Beyond Design Basis Accident. (The technical phrase connotes factoring in accident sequences that are possible but were not fully considered in the design process). Dr. Singh also reviewed the earthquake and tsunami preparedness and desired that the guidelines the NDMA formulated be made into action plans by the ministries/departments at the Centre and also the State governments. The NDMA was directed to proactively follow up the issue with agencies


concerned. NDMA vice-chairman M. Shashidhar Reddy said that as part of the chemical, biological, radiological nuclear response and rescue preparedness, the Authority was working on a project for installation of ‘dosi-meters’ (to measure exposure to environment hazards) in 1,000 police stations in 35 cities with more than one million population. Based on these and various guidelines brought out by the NDMA, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was identified as the nodal Ministry. A task force formed by the Ministry prepared a road map covering assessment of the capacities and an action plan for enhanced medical preparedness.

Separate Council Mooted for Defence Studies in Varsities With national security as a discipline and autonomous subjects not finding a rightful place in higher education in Indian universities, even though international security receives far greater attention, a committee of defence experts has suggested institution of a Council of National Security Research and Studies, corresponding broadly to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), to promote and coordinate defence and strategic studies in the country. The expert committee set up by Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal to make suggestions on developing scholarship in the field of studies relating to national security interests has recommended setting up autonomous Centres of National Security Studies on the pattern of the Defence Ministry-funded Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA). These would be funded directly by the HRD Ministry and will aim to attract young, bright scholars to undertake policy related futureoriented research through award of fellowships.

Fast Attack Craft INS Kabra Commissioned Water jet-propelled Fast Attack Craft (FAC) INS Kabra, eighth in a series of 10 Car Nicobar-class FACs designed and built by the Kolkata-based Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) for the Navy, was commissioned by Vice-Admiral K.N. Sushil, Flag. Vice-Admiral Sushil said smaller ships like FACs were important in tackling peacetime challenges to maritime security such as piracy and low-intensity conflicts. “INS Kalpeni [the water jet-propelled FAC 150


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current commissioned under the command in October last] has extensively participated in anti-piracy operations.” Wednesday’s ceremony involved an announcement of the commissioning warrant issued by the Chief of the Naval Staff, hoisting of the naval ensign and the national flag aboard the ship to the tune of the national anthem, and breaking of the commissioning pennant. INS Kabra has speeds in excess of 35 knots. It offers excellent manoeuvrability and is ideal for highspeed interdiction of fast-moving targets. The ship’s speed, agility and quick response will be useful in search and rescue operations. The low draught also allows the ship to operate in shallow waters close to the coast. INS Kabra complies with the latest regulations of the International Maritime Organisation on sea pollution control. Its main armament is a 30-mm CRN-91 gun. Also fitted with machine guns of various types and the IGLA shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, the ship has a crew of three officers and 39 sailors. It is commanded by Commander Bandhul Mishra, a specialist in missile, weapons and radar systems.

Kalam for Developing BrahMos’ Hypersonic Version The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on Sunday asked the BrahMos Aerospace to develop an advanced version of the BrahMos cruise missile to maintain India’s leadership in the field. India is the only country to have a supersonic cruise missile developed in a joint venture with Russia. BrahMos Aerospace CEO and Managing Director A. Sivathanu Pillai said BrahMos was a unique missile that could be configured for multiple types of platforms on land and sea and underwater against different types of land and sea targets. “Its competitor is yet to be born. Its speed and devastating power has made it unparalleled.” The missile system has been inducted in the Army and the Navy.

Indian Scientists Develop Technology to Manage Ballast Water A group of Indian scientists may have found the solution to an issue of global concern: disturbance of eco systems because of the growing maritime traffic across the world.


The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) had been perennially concerned over the transportation of marine species between different parts of the world because of discharge of ballast water from ocean-going ships. Over the years, it had been taking several measures to address the issue. But, so far, none of them had been totally effective. Incidences of invasion of alien species in coastal water due to ballast water discharge continue. In the new development that promises to be of far-reaching significance, the scientists have got a patent from the United States Patent Office for a treatment technology for the ballast water that is not only highly effective, but is also all more eco-friendly as it does not use any chemicals. A.C. Anil, Scientist at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), who developed the technology in collaboration with his colleagues at the Pune-based National Chemical Laboratory and University of Bombay’s Institute of Chemical Technology, said the technology is based on the principle of ‘hydrodynamic cavitation.’ The action plan included an electronic reporting system, whereby ships sailing in and out of these ports would have to declare where they were coming from, the quantum of ballast water and other such details. The exercise would be expanded to create a national integrated action to cover the remaining eight major ports in the country by 2016.

DRDO Plans Another K-15 Missile Launch The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) plans another test-firing of the K-15 missile from a pontoon off the coast of Visakhapatnam. Developed under the Sagarika project, the K15 has been test-fired several times from submerged pontoons off Visakhapatnam. The pontoon, simulating the conditions of a submarine, will be positioned about 10 to 20 metres below the sea surface. A gas-charged booster will erupt into life, driving the two-stage missile to the surface. The missile’s first stage will then ignite and it will climb 20 km in the air before cutting a parabolic path and travelling over a range of 700 km. The missile, which is under production, can carry 151


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs both conventional and nuclear warheads. It will form part of the lethal arsenal of the country’s first nuclear-powered submarine, Arihant, which is undergoing sea trials. India is building two more such submarines. The DRDO is developing a K-4 underwater-launched missile, which will have a range of 3,000 km. Developmental tests of the missile’s gas-booster have taken place from a pontoon. The sixth launch of the interceptor missile, developed by the DRDO, is scheduled for the first fortnight of February. A modified Prithvi missile, taking off from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur on the Orissa coast, will act as an “enemy” missile. The interceptor, to be fired from the Wheeler Island, off Damra on the State’s coast, will ambush the “enemy” missile in endoatmosphere at an altitude of 15 km. Sources in the DRDO called it “a tricky mission” because the attacker would have a manoeuvrable trajectory and try to dodge the interceptor from homing in on it. Of the five earlier missions, four were successful.

PSLV Launch on July 15 Preparations are on in top gear for the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV- C17) from Sriharikota. The rocket will put into orbit communication satellite GSAT-12. Both the launch vehicle and the satellite were built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The satellite that weighs 1,410 kg has 12 extended C-band transponders. The PSLV-C17 will inject GSAT-12 into an elliptical transfer orbit (sub-geosynchronous transfer orbit) with a perigee of 284 km and an apogee of 21,000 km. Subsequently, commands will be given from ISRO’s Master Control Facility at Hassan, Karnataka, for firing the liquid apogee motor on board the satellite to raise both its apogee and perigee to an altitude of 36,000 km and place it in a circular orbit.

2020 May see India-built Aircraft in the Skies India could join by 2020, if not earlier, the select group of countries that manufacture aircraft. A committee, comprising top bureaucrats, aerospace scientists and industry leaders, recently


submitted a report to the Prime Minister’s Office, which says the country has the technical capability to make a project to design and develop a regional aircraft with a seating capacity of 70 to 90 that would be stretchable to 80-100 seats. The panel, headed by the former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, G. Madhavan Nair, and Director-General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Samir Brahmachari has estimated that the project could cost about Rs. 7,700 crore — Rs. 4,500 crore for the design and development activities and Rs. 3,200 crore for the production unit.

India All set to Test New Short-range Tactical Missile ‘Prahaar’ (to strike), a totally new quickreaction, short-range tactical missile, which will fill the gap for such a battlefield weapon system in India’s missile arsenal, is all set to be flight-tested. The 150 km-range missile would replace unguided rockets and “is going to be an excellent weapon.” It would bridge the gap between Pinaka, a 40-km range multi-barrel rocket system, and the 350-km Prithvi-II, which had been converted into a strategic missile. Unguided rockets of 90-km range had also been imported from Russia.

‘Hot Run’ of First of 2x1000 MWe Reactors in Koodankulam Starts The much-awaited ‘‘Hot run’’ of the first of the 2 X 1,000 MWe reactors under construction as part of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) commenced, indicating that this nuclear reactor may attain criticality within another five months provided the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) is satisfied with the functioning of the hi-tech equipment of this reactor and gives its clearance on time. As the AERB’s clearance reached KKNPP morning, the ‘Hot run’, an important activity that will take place before the reactor is loaded with the real fuel assemblies made of enriched uranium, commenced immediately. The ‘Hot run’ will involve heating the primary coolant water to the reactor’s operating temperature of 280 - 300 degree Celsius. The reactor systems will be operated at the temperature at which it will 152


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current operate when it has enriched uranium fuel bundles. The process of ‘Hot run’ will take place with the dummy fuel assemblies, which were loaded into the reactor several months ago. The dummy fuel assemblies have the same configuration as the real fuel assemblies but have no enriched uranium inside. The reactor vessel houses 163 fuel assemblies.

The Last Voyage of the Space Shuttle For the last time, the engines of a space shuttle roared, the ground rumbled, and the shuttle Atlantis rose off the launching pad and quickly disappeared into the gray, overcast sky. By dawn on Friday, cars and campers lined the sides of roadways with the prime views as hundreds of thousands of people came to watch the 135th and last flight in the space shuttle program. The program, which began in 1981, will come to an end when the Atlantis’ wheels roll to a stop on the runway in two weeks. Atlantis is carrying 8,000 pounds of supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station.

INS Viraatin Kochi for Refit Two years after it received a comprehensive lifeextending refit, with a major upgrade and overhaul of systems and equipment, the Navy’s aircraft carrier, , is back for another round of routine refit at the Cochin Shipyard. “There is a fair amount of life left for the carrier and we expect it to last at least till 2018. It might go even beyond that,” R. Hari , said. Kumar, Commanding Officer of Originally commissioned into the Royal Navy of the U.K. as on November 18, 1959, the battle-hardened Centaur-class vessel, which proved its mettle in the Falklands action in 1982, on May began its life in the Indian Navy as 12, 1987. Even as the floating giant completes 52 years of existence and is set to turn 25 years with the Indian Navy, it seldom shows any signs of aging.

C-17 Globemaster to be Inducted at Hindan Air Base The Indian Air Force (IAF) will induct C-17 Globemaster III, its largest strategic heavy lift aircraft, at its Hindan base in Ghaziabad after it is procured from the United States. The first aircraft would be delivered during 2013-14, IAF officials said. India


had recently signed its biggest defence deal with the U.S. to procure 10 C-17s for $ 4.1 billion. American defence major Boeing would set up test facilities for hi-tech aeronautics engines for the Defence Research and Defence Organisation. Hindan, the closest Air Force station outside the capital, is already home to the C-130J Super Hercules, which was inducted in February for carrying out special operations. Till now, Agra has been the main hub of heavy lift aircraft such as the Ilyushin-76 and Il-78 mid-air refuellers along with the bases in Chandigarh and Nagpur. After procuring the 10 aircraft, the IAF is likely to order six more C-17s to augment its fleet of the Il-76, C-130J and An-32 transporters. The Globemaster is capable of carrying a maximum payload of 77.5 tonnes, including combat vehicles, artillery guns and battle-ready troops and will strengthen India’s capabilities to rapidly move troops and equipment in its areas of interest. The four-engine aircraft is capable of taking off and landing even on makeshift runways, barely 3,500feet long and 90-feet wide.

Using ‘White Spaces’ well Are we ready to take on the “White Spaces” and harness them for better and more thorough use of spectrum? And we do not mean “white spaces” literally. Technically, “White Spaces” is a term used to “indicate those parts of the spectrum used for communication applications [like radio, television and Internet] available in a given geographical area that work without causing interference to the primary users of spectrum.” The primary users are the licensed users of spectrum band. They often do not use the allocated spectrum to the maximum. “White Space” devices could help find the spectrum’s under-utilised aspects and make the secondary users utilise them without causing any interference to the primary users. Simply, the technology works by sensing the spectrum that remains unused and uses it to transmit wireless products.

“PSLV a Proud Symbol of ISRO’s Selfreliance” India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle proved its versatility and reliability once again when the PSLV-C17 put the communication satellite GSAT12 in a perfect orbit. This is the 18th successful flight 153


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs of the PSLV in a row and this is the third time that it is putting a satellite in a geo-synchronous transfer orbit (GTO), which is a tricky business. And the PSLV proved its versatility because it is the more powerful XL version of the PSLV that put the GSAT-12 in orbit. There are three versions of the PSLV — the standard, the core-alone without the six strap-on booster motors, and the XL version, which carries more solid fuel in its strap-on motors than the standard version. All the three versions have proved to be unalloyed successes. An XL version had successfully put Chandrayaan-1 in a GTO in October 2008. Important Mission K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), called it an “important mission, both from the technological angle and for the people of the country.” The mission was so perfect that the rocket put the satellite in a sub-GTO with an apogee of 21,020 km against the planned 21,000 km and a perigee of 284 km against a targeted 281 km. The GSAT-12 with its 12 extended C-band transponders would be used in tele-medicine, tele-education, village resource centres and supporting disaster management. Though putting the GSAT-12 in a sub-GTO was “a tricky mission,” Dr. Radhakrishnan said, the ISRO was successful in doing it with the experience gained from the Chandrayaan1 mission.

GSAT-12 Reaches Its Home in a Circular Geo-synchronous Orbit India’s communication satellite GSAT-12, put in orbit on July 15, reached its home in a circular geo-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 36,000 km. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C17) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which lifted off from the space station at Sriharikota on July 15, 2011, put the 1,410 kg GSAT-12 in a sub geosynchronous transfer orbit (sub-GTO) with an apogee of 21,020 km and a perigee of 284 km. After the satellite was put in a sub-GTO, the liquid apogee motor (LAM) on board was fired once each day from July 16-19 to circularise the orbit at an altitude of 36,000 km. On July 16 and 17, commands were given from the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka to the LAM


to take the satellite’s apogee from 21,020 km to 36,000 km when the satellite was at its perigee. Similarly, the commands to the LAM to fire to take the perigee from 284 km to 36,000 km were given on July 18 and 19 when the satellite was at its apogee. “Thus, it was a challenging operation,” said an ISRO official. With 12 extended C-band transponders, the satellite will be useful in teleeducation, tele-medicine, disaster management support, telephone services and so on. The PSLV-C18 will put the 1,000-kg MeghaTropiques (Megha in Sanskrit means cloud and Tropiques in French means tropics), being built by the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, into an 867 km orbit. It will be useful in studying the weather in tropical countries. ISRO is also building for surveillance, RISAT-1 (Radar Imaging Satellite) which will be put in orbit by the end of December by PSLVC19. It can take pictures of the earth day and night and in all weather condition.

India Richer by One of the World’s Largest Uranium Reserves Tummalapalle in Andhra Pradesh could have one of the largest uranium reserves in the world. Recent studies have indicated that it could have a reserve of 1.5 lakh tonnes of the scarce material, said Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee here. “Studies have already shown that the area had a confirmed reserve of 49,000 tonnes and recent surveys indicate that this figure could go up even threefold,” he disclosed. He was inaugurate construction work on two more units of 700 MW each at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) by making “the first pour of concrete”. He said uranium deposits in Tummalapalle appeared to be spread over 35 km. Exploratory works are under way. At present, the country is estimated to have a total reserve of about 1,75,000 tonnes of uranium, apart from this. The two new units at Rawatbhata are being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs. 12,000 crore and are scheduled to be ready in five years from “the first pour of concrete.” The reactors are on the lines of the two 700 MW reactors under construction at Kakrapar in Gujarat. They have been designed by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited by scaling up 154


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current the 540 MW reactors operating at Tarapur in Maharashtra since 2005. The reactors have advanced safety features, including passive safety systems that work on natural principles such as gravity, and natural convection and do not need operator intervention or motive power to ensure reactor safety under any state of operations. According to an NPCIL note, there would be two independent and diverse systems to shut down the reactor, a passive decay heat removal system to ensure cooling of the reactor core even in case of total loss of power and steel-lined containment to contain the entire radioactivity within the reactor building even in a severe accident scenario.

New Moon Around Pluto NASA astronomers, while searching for rings around the dwarf planet Pluto, have discovered a tiny new moon around the planet, photos from the Hubble Space Telescope showed. The moon, which has been temporarily named P4, was spotted in a Hubble survey searching for rings around Pluto. The tiny satellite, the fourth and smallest one, is estimated to be between 13 to 34 km wide. For comparison, Pluto’s largest moon Charon is 1,043 km across. The dwarf planet’s other moons, Nix and Hydra, range between 32 to 113 km across. Antenna of GSAT-12 Deployed The antenna of communications satellite GSAT-12 was deployed afternoon, to much applause from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka. Commercial Use ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said the satellite’s 12 transponders would be put through a series of in-orbital tests and they would be considered fully operational for commercial use after four to five weeks. Final Deployment GSAT 12 will facilitate telemedicine, teleeducation and village resource centres. The 1.2-metre reflector antenna was the final deployment of the satellite, which is now in the final configuration of 36,000-km circular orbit. It will be co-located with INSAT-2E and INSAT-4A.


India to Get Nerpa by Year-end Russia will transfer the Akula-II class Nerpa nuclear attack submarine to India on a 10-year lease by the end of 2011, Russian Naval Chief Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky has said. “There are no obstacles for the transfer of the submarine to the Indian Navy by the end of this year,” Admiral Vysotsky was quoted as saying by Interfax. He said an Indian crew had undergone the full course of training and the submarine was being prepared for delivery trials. Under the lease contract, estimated to be between $650 million and $900 million, India had funded the completion of the submarine at Amur Shipyard before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Nerpa was to be inducted into the Indian Navy like INS Chakra by mid-2008, but on November 8, 2008, shortly after the sea trials commenced, as many as 20 sailors and technical workers were killed onboard, while they were asleep, due to the release of toxic Freon gas following a technical problem in the automatic fire suppression system.

Why the Moon is Lopsided: A New Explanation A whack from a smaller sibling could, it seems, account for one of the abiding mysteries about the Moon — why the side seen from the Earth is so different from its other hemisphere. The nearside is low and flat, with lava-filled basins that are readily visible as dark patches which early astronomers mistakenly labelled as ‘maria’ (or seas). In 1959, the Soviet Union’s Luna 3 became the first spacecraft to go behind the Moon and the photographs it sent back showed the far-side to be mountainous. Later studies also showed that the Moon’s crust was much thicker on the far-side. The nearside, on the other hand, has rocks rich in potassium, rare earth elements and phosphorous, which the other side lacked. Strange Asymmetry A new explanation for this strange asymmetry has been put forward in a paper in the latest issue of the journal . The Moon, it suggests, may once have had a companion that was one-third its diameter and just four per cent of its weight. Both Moons 155


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs formed from the huge cloud of debris that was flung into space when a Mars-sized object slammed into the Earth some 4.5 billion years ago. For tens of millions of years, the smaller moon was held in place by the competing gravitational pull from the Earth and the Moon. During that period, the Moon cooled sufficiently for a crust to form, with an ocean of molten rock (known as magma) beneath it. Meanwhile, the companion Moon, being smaller, solidified, according to the scenario envisaged by Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug of the University of California at Santa Cruz in the U.S. Then, about 70 million years after their formation, the companion moon’s orbit became unstable and it ended up crashing into the Moon. The collision occurred by cosmic standards at a ‘lowimpact velocity.’ As a result, the smaller companion got splattered over the Moon, “pasting on a thickened crust and forming a mountainous region comparable in extent to the far-side highlands,” the two scientists noted in their paper. The crash also pushed the magma ocean, which had higher levels of potassium, rare earth elements and phosphorous, into the other hemisphere. Plausibility Many processes in nature could produce the observed pattern of lunar asymmetry and the current study demonstrated “plausibility rather than proof,” observed Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a commentary published in the same issue of the journal. Such proof could come from the America’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory spacecraft that will head to the Moon next month. Dr. Zuber is the principal investigator for the mission. The mission will provide “very detailed information about the crustal thickness,” observed Dr. Jutzi in an e-mail. The paper had made “an interesting suggestion that appears viable conceptually but may not be the real story,” cautioned J.N. Goswami, director of the Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad and chairman of the Science Advisory Board for India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission. Bringing back samples from more than one location on the far-side on the Moon would provide useful evidence, he pointed out. If the scenario given


in the paper was correct, there should be rocks there that were far older than those found on the nearside.

Juno Leaves for Jupiter NASA launched the billion-dollar solarpowered spacecraft Juno on a five-year journey to Jupiter. The unmanned satellite observatory shot into space aboard a 197-foot-tall (60 metres) Atlas V rocket, blasting off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 12:25 p.m. Once it arrives in July 2016, the spacecraft will orbit the poles of the gas giant, which has more than twice the mass of all planets in the solar system combined and is believed to be the first planet that took shape around the Sun. Named after the wife of the Roman god Jupiter, the $1.1 billion spacecraft is NASA’s first mission to the planet since Galileo was launched in 1989. It aims for 30 orbits over a period of one year. Juno will get closer to Jupiter than any other NASA spacecraft has and will be the first to undertake a polar orbit of the planet, said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator and scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. The orbiter Galileo entered the planet’s orbit in 1995 and plunged into Jupiter in 2003, ending its life. Other NASA spacecraft — including Voyager 1 and 2, Ulysses and New Horizons — have done flybys of the planet. Juno will spend the first two years of its mission going around the Sun, then return for a flyby of the Earth, which will give a gravitational boost to accelerate the spacecraft on a three-year path toward Jupiter. When it gets there, Juno — orbiting around 5,000 km (3,100 miles) above the gas giant — will make use of a series of instruments, some of which were provided by European space agency partners in Italy, Belgium, France and Denmark, to learn about the workings of the planet and what is inside. Two key experiments will gauge how much water is in Jupiter and whether the planet “has a core of heavy elements at the centre, or whether it is just gas all the way down,” Mr. Bolton said at a press briefing. Scientists also hope to learn more about Jupiter’s magnetic fields and its Great Red Spot, a storm that has been raging for more than 300 years. 156



Water Flow Signs Found on Mars The possible presence of liquid water is certain to revive speculation that Mars is teeming with microbial organisms. The recipe for life, at least as we know it, calls for liquid water, carbon-based molecules and a source for energy. There is plenty of ice on Mars, but the chemical reactions for life come to a halt when water freezes. High-resolution photographs taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived at Mars in 2006, show finger-like streaks up to five yards wide that appear on some steep slopes in the late Martian spring. These streaks grow and shift through summer, reaching hundreds of yards in length before they fade in winter. One crater had about 1,000 streaks. But finding streaks is not the same as finding water. An instrument on the Mars orbiter capable of detecting water has not found any, but that might just mean that the amount of water in the flows is too little to be seen. The scientists said the best explanation they could offer for the streaks was that they were caused by a flow of extremely salty water down the slopes. The salts, which have been detected all around Mars, would allow the water to remain liquid at much colder temperatures than pure water.

China’s First Aircraft Carrier Sets out for Sea Trial China’s first aircraft carrier set out on a lowprofile sea trial, its first journey under the Chinese flag. The vessel set sail from the port of Dalian, which narrowly escaped tropical storm Muifa. Military sources said the trial was in line with the carrier’s refitting schedule and would not be a long one. Refitting work will continue after the vessel returns to port. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy behemoth is a former Soviet Navy aircraft carrier that has been fully refitted for its new role as a platform for research and training. Soviet ship The ship, formerly named Varyag, is an Admiral Kuznetsov Class aircraft carrier that is 304.5 metres long and 37 metres wide, with a displacement of 58,500 metric tonnes.


Construction of the vessel was started by the Soviet Union in 1985. It was completed in 1992 except for its electronic components. After the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Ukraine took over the ship. In 1998, the vessel was bought by a Macao casino company. Since March 2002, it had been berthed in Dalian. Currently, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Spain, Italy, India, Brazil and Thailand operate the 21 active-service aircraft carriers.

Agni-II Missile Launched Scheduled for Tomorrow Preparations are under way for the launch of India’s intermediate range ballistic missile, Agni-II, from Wheeler Island, off Dhamra village on the Orissa coast. The Strategic Forces Command of the Army, which handles nuclear weapons-delivery systems, will conduct the launch. Agni-II is already under production and the Army has deployed it. The two-stage missile can carry a nuclear warhead weighing one tonne. The missile has been designed and developed by the Advanced Systems Laboratory at Hyderabad, an important missile complex, coming under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Rudra to Join Army Soon The Army’s aerial firepower capabilities will get a boost, with the induction soon of the attack version of indigenously-built Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) ‘Rudra.’ The ‘Rudra’ is the first weaponised chopper built in the country and will be inducted into the Army Aviation Corps in the current financial year, Army officials said. Armed with an array of guns, rocket pods, airto-air and anti-tank guided missiles, the fleet of the weaponised helicopters, the “heavily-loaded” ALH, was approved for induction as part of modernisation and capability development efforts by the government, they said. ‘Rudra’ is an armed variant of ALH Dhruva chopper and “necessary changes have been made in the airframe of the chopper to give it agility and speed to make it a suitable support weapon for the ground troops.” 157



BrahMos Airborne Launcher Prototype Undergoing Tests The BrahMos Aerospace Limited (BATL) has been contracted to build five prototype airborne launchers of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile with its first flight test on a Su-30 MKI aircraft slated to take place by the end of 2012. Fabricated using high strength aluminium, the 6-metre-long airborne launcher — the largest in the world — weighs 350 kg. “The first prototype is undergoing various tests in Hyderabad. Four more prototypes will be fabricated at BATL with tests conducted in a staggered fashion,” Mr. Pillai said.

All Set for China’s Space Module Launch A spokesperson for China’s manned space programme said that fuel had been injected into the Long March-2FT1 carrier rocket in preparation for launching the Tiangong-1 space module. The Long March-2FT1 is the latest modified model of the Long March-2 rocket series and features a more powerful thrust force, said spokeswoman Wu Ping at a press conference at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The Long March-2FT1, given more than 170 improvements, is 52-metre long with a payload to low Earth orbit of 8.6 tonnes,said Mr. Wu. The modifications came after an unsuccessful launch in August when a Long March-2C rocket failed to send an experimental satellite into orbit. Engineers conducted comprehensive technical evaluations and made modifications to Tiangong-1’s Long March-2F carrier rocket, which shares most of its components with the failed Long March-2C. To contain the Tiangong-1 module, which is larger than China’s Shenzhou manned spacecraft, the Long March-2FT1 has a larger nose fairing, according to Jing Muchun, chief designer of the Tiangong mission’s carrier rocket system. Compared with carrier rockets that the United States and Russia have used to launch Moon-landing vehicles and space station components, China’s Long March rocket series is much less powerful. For example, a carrier rocket must have a payload capacity of at least 20 tonnes to send one single part of the International Space Station into low Earth orbit. “China’s manned space programme aims


at building up a space station, so we need a more powerful carrier rocket,” Jing told Xinhua at the launch center.

Manmohan for reinforcing maritime security Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India should ensure adequate control over its maritime activity for security reasons. Speaking at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) he said, “India’s maritime sector is of vital significance to our economy and every effort should be made to strengthen it.”

NASA’s flying telescope in search of distant stars A new and powerful telescope is being used by NASA astronomers for studying the atmospheres of planets and the formation of stars. However, unlike most of the space agency’s telescopes, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is not in space — rather it flies around mounted on a Boeing 747 jet with a large door cut on the side for it to see out. One reason why scientists have chosen to put the telescope on a plane is that the plane lands every day, says Alycia Weinberg, astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science, who is in charge of planning observations on SOFIA. The daily landings let researchers fix things or upgrade instruments. Plus, with no more space shuttle missions, fixing telescopes in space ranges is no more viable. Another reason a flying telescope makes sense is that at 45,000 feet you’re above most of the moisture in atmosphere. For, water vapour makes viewing the sky at infrared wavelengths impossible. Like sounds that are too low or too high for human ears to hear, infrared wavelengths are light and the human eye cannot see them. Atoms, molecules One of the things astronomers especially like to do with light from distant objects is put it through a spectrometer that can reveal the kinds of atoms and molecules that are in the light from whatever the telescope is pointed at.

Army’s winter war games begin this week Buoyed by its successful summer war games in Rajasthan and Punjab, the Army will hold another 158


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current such massive exercise, featuring a potent strike corps in the Rajasthan desert along the Pakistan border. This time around, the Bhopal-based 21 Corps will carry out the winter exercises, which will go on for two months till the middle of December, top sources in the Army Headquarters here told IANS. The war games are aimed at building the capacities of the strike formation in delivering deadly blows to the enemy forces in short offensives, by breaching defences and capturing important strategic assets deep inside the other’s territory. They will enable the 21 “Sudarshan Chakra” Corps to showcase its firepower through battle tanks and artillery guns. The summer war games ‘Vijayee Bhava,’ that took place in the Rajasthan desert in May, were conducted by the Ambala-based 2 “Kharga” Corps, the other of the three strike formations. The ‘Pine Prahar’ exercises in the plains of Punjab, also in May, were staged by the Jalandharbased 11 “Vajra” Corps, a pivot formation with both defensive and offensive elements. The Army has carried out nearly a dozen major exercises in the western sector from 2004 to validate a new battle doctrine loosely termed “Cold Start” by think tanks and the media. In simple terms, it involves replacing a lumbering elephant with a race horse. Although Army chief General V.K. Singh has denied the existence of a “Cold Start” doctrine, he did acknowledge that the Army had plans for speedy mobilisation in case a conflict loomed.

Nobel winners sweep away cosy view of Universe What if, instead of ending in a bang or a whimper, it did neither, and just expanded on and on, flying apart in a limbo of deep chill and disconnected atoms? This is the implication — as revolutionary as it is scary— of the insights that earned three astronomers the Nobel Physics Prize. Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess of the United States and U.S-Australian Brian Schmidt won the paramount award for using ancient stars that flare in dramatic death throes to measure distance on a cosmic scale. These so-called type 1a supernovae were used by their teams as “standard candles” whose distance could be measured, like beacons inthe night. Working in competing groups, the Supernova Cosmology


Project and High-z Supernova Search Team looked at the “redshift” from these ultra-bright stars. Redshift is a measurement of a star’s redness in the light spectrum. The farther the distance, the more the wavelength stretches deeper into the red zone, becoming a yardstick of how far light has travelled. The technique entailed looking at the sky just after the new Moon and again three weeks later, before moonlight obliterates the faint light of stars. The two images are then compared in the hope of spotting a new dot of light that could be the flare of a distant supernova.What the two teams had expected to find was a cosy redshift that would back theories that the Universe — set in motion by the Big Bang 14 billion years ago — was expanding, but at ever-slower speed. In 1998, the two rival groups put forward results that shook the very foundations of science. They found greater and greater redshift values from their “standard candles,” signalling the Universe’s expansion was not constant but accelerating. The implication was clear: ultimately, the force of gravity would no longer be enough to keep matter together. Instead, atoms would become more and more diluted in an ever larger, always colder and emptier space.

Satellite in good health The Megha-Tropiques satellite, put in orbit by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C18) on October 12, is in good health and its four scientific instruments have been energised. The satellite is a joint contribution from India and France to the global scientific community engaged in research on climate and weather systems that affect the daily life of humanity the world over and particularly in the tropical region, a press release from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. Three copassenger satellites, the SRMSat from the SRM University, near Chennai, the Jugnu from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and the Vesselsat-1 from Luxembourg were put in orbit by the PSLV-C18. The user-institutions have confirmed establishing contact with their satellites.

‘Shakti’ wound up with search-and-destroy mission In an unprecedented operation, highly-trained Indian and French troops undertook a daring search159


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs and-destroy mission in the hills of Ranikhet in Uttarkhand to neutralise terrorists hiding in the dense Pilkholi forests. The mission was part of the consolidation exercise that marked the culmination of a 15-day ‘Shakti-2011’ war games at Chaubatia, which were undertaken by armies of both countries for the first time.

Second India-Oman joint air exercises end The Indian Air Force completed its second joint exercise with its counterparts from Oman, whose northern tip is located at the Straits of Hormuz, entrance to the crucial Gulf. The previous exercise was held in 2009, the first sch full-fledged endeavour with a Gulf State. The exercise, said sources, was part of India’s efforts to build strategic ties with Oman, whose ports have been utilised by Indian Navy frigates for antipiracy duty off the Gulf of Aden. In fact, Oman is the first Arab State to have formalised defence ties with India, and its Foreign Minister Yusuf Bin Alawai bin Abdulla was the first high-level leader from an Arab country to visit India after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. It helped that of the largely U.S., U.K. and French-origin military hardware, Oman also has Jaguar fighters which were deployed for the “Exercise Eastern bridge-2011” at the Jamnagar Air Force base in Gujarat. Closer security ties, said sources, would smoothen the path for greater economic engagement. Oman has a free trade agreement with the U.S. and, according to Oman’s Ambassador Sheikh Humaid Bin Ali Bin Sultan Al-mani, India could use its industrial zones and the port of Salana, which can be used to send goods to the U.S.

‘Tiny planet has water ice’ Astronomers have discovered a mysterious dwarf planet, which they believe is covered in ice and may sport the wispy remnants of an atmosphere. The planet, named “Snow White,” lies outside Neptune and is orbiting the sun as part of the Kuiper belt — the ring of icy bodies that orbit the sun beyond Neptune. Officially known as 2007 OR10, it is actually red. Half of its surface is covered by water ice that probably spewed from ancient cryovolcanoes, researchers said. It is believed that the planet’s reddish hue likely comes from a thin


layer of methane, last gasps of an atmosphere that has been bleeding off into space for eons.

Russian mission to Mars moon stuck in Earth’s orbit A Russian space probe to a Mars moon launched is stuck in the Earth’s orbit after its engines failed to fire. After the booster rocket put the spacecraft on a support orbit around the Earth, the probe’s own engines were programmed to get started to put it on a trajectory to Mars, but they did not. The Russian space agency said it may still be possible to put the probe back on track. The project, named Phobos-Grunt that means “soil from Phobos” after one of Mars’ two moons, is dubbed the most challenging inter-planetary mission so far. It involves sophisticated manoeuvring to approach Phobos from a Mars orbit, soft-land on the surface of 22-km wide Phobos, collect samples of its soil and return to the Earth in 2014. Nobody has yet attempted to bring rock samples from the moon of a planet. Scientists hope the mission could help solve the mystery of the origin of Phobos and the solar system. Phobos-Grunt is carrying a Chinese minisatellite that is to study Mars for two years in its orbit. The spacecraft has onboard a U.S. experiment with bacteria, plant seeds and microscopic invertebrates to find out whether life could have migrated between planets. The French and German space agencies also have provided instrumentation for the mission. Russia had sent several probes to Mars in the past, but none reached its goal. The last attempt was mounted five years ago, when the Mars-96 spacecraft failed to reach even its support orbit and fell back to the Earth.

CISF contingent for U.N. mission Central Industrial Security Force DirectorGeneral N. R. Das flagged off a 140-strong Formed Police Unit contingent for the United Nations stabilisation mission in Haiti. The contingent, headed by Commandant Anil Kumar Pandey, will assist the Haitian National Police in weapons control and public security measures; it will ensure restoration and maintenance of the rule of law, public safety and public order in the troubled nation through operational support. A major responsibility of the contingent will be to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence and ensure safety of UN personnel, facilities, installations and equipment and to secure free movement of its personnel. 160



Agni II Prime to be tested again Missile technologists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are reaching Wheeler Island off the coast of Orissa for the launch of India’s Agni II Prime missile. The missile will take off from a specially designed truck and, if the flight is successful, it will target an area 3,000 km away in the Bay of Bengal. Agni-II Prime is a two-stage surface-to-surface missile that aims at filling the gap in the ranges between Agni-II and Agni-III. While Agni-II can take out targets 2,000 km away, Agni-III can travel a distance of 3,000 km to 3,500 km. All the three are strategic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. But test flights like these carry conventional explosives. Agni-II Prime is 20 metres long and weighs 17 tonnes. This time it will carry a warhead weighing 800 kg instead of the normal 1,000 kg. “We are aiming to go for range of 3,000 km this time,” a DRDO official said. The Advanced Missile Laboratory, Hyderabad, has designed and developed the missile.

AERB for more Power, Water for Nuclear Stations A committee appointed by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has recommended “extended and enhanced availability” of both power and water for all the nuclear power stations in the country, including the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP), in the aftermath of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan in March this year. AERB chairman S.S. Bajaj said, “What has been recommended is portable power packs that can be hooked up for power supply when normal electricity systems are not available. A secure water source should be identified for emergency cooling of the reactor core.” While dealing with Kudankulam, the committee found that it had a lot of strong points. Its reactors were well protected, particularly from tsunami, as they were situated at a higher elevation than the maximum anticipated tsunami level. With regard to earthquakes, he said the reactors were designed very well. “Besides, they have a lot of safety features, including the passive heat removal system (PHRS). (The PHRS uses the atmospheric air to cool the reactor fuel core when all sources of power supply to the reactor unit fail and there is a station blackout. The PHRS does not need electrical pumps).


Operational Trials of ATC Systems of IAF Scheduled for Next Year The Indian Air Force’s ambitious plan to improve the infrastructure of its airfields is on course and a key component in integrating various systems for air traffic control should become operational for trials by early next year at the first site. The first site is being readied by U.S. major Raytheon to enable different radars of the IAF to integrate and provide data. It is one of the crucial programmes of a Rs. 1,000-crore Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI) contract that Tata Power Strategic Electronic Division signed with the IAF in April. The MAFI project is split into two phases. The first phase envisages upgrading the facilities in 30 air bases, including testing, integration and sustenance of the Instrument Landing System, Distance Measurement System, the Tactical Air Navigation system, the Air Traffic Management System and the CAT-2 Airfield Lighting System. It is expected to be completed in 42 months. In PhaseII, 20-odd airfields that include those with the IAF, the Army, Navy and the Coast Guard are to be taken up for modernisation. The Defence Ministry feels that based on the experience gained in the implementation of the first phase, the requirement in respect of the second phase will be consolidated. The time line for the second phase is also approximately 42 months. With the completion of both the phases, a total of 59 airfields will have lighting system to facilitate night landing. Of these operational air bases, eight do not have electrical airfield lighting facility while four of these are provided with solar-powered/portable lighting system. Aircraft Induction The upgrading of the existing air bases is also in line with the massive modernisation of the IAF inventory with the induction of C130J and the acquisition of heavy-lift C17 Globemaster transport aircraft and other platforms.

BDL to Produce Akash Missiles Minister of State for Defence M. M. Pallam Raju said that there is a need to expand the production capacity of Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) in view of the increasing demand. Largest Order The BDL has recently bagged the largest ever 161


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs order worth Rs. 14,000 crore for supply of Akash weapon systems to the Indian Army. The facility which the Union Minister laid the stone would cater to the requirement of supply of Akash missiles.

New Earth-like Planet May have Water, Life Scientists claim to have discovered a potentially habitable planet which has an environment much similar to that of the Earth and may contain water and even life. The exoplanet, called Gliese 581g, is located around 123 trillion miles away from the Earth and orbits a star at a distance that places it squarely in the habitable or the Goldilocks zone, the scientists said. The research, published in the Astrophysical Journal , suggests that the planet could contain liquid water on its surface, meaning it tops the league of planets and moons rated as being most like Earth, they said. The team reported the discovery of two new planets around Gliese 581. This brings the total number of known planets around this star to six, the most yet discovered in a planetary system outside of our own. Like our solar system, the planets around Gliese 581 have nearly-circular orbits, the team said. Gliese 581 has a mass three to four times the Earth’s and orbits its star in just under 37 days. Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet with a definite surface and enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere, they said. — PTI

Agni-I Missile Successfully Test-fired off Odisha Coast The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of the armed forces successfully test-fired an Agni-I missile from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast, on Thursday to test its readiness to launch ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads. The Agni-I, developedby the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is already in the Army’s arsenal. The missile, with a range of 700 km, is Pakistan-specific. It covers the western range. It is 15 metres long, weighs 12 tonnes and has a single stage, powered by solid propellants. It can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead. The Agni-I, the Agni-II, the Agni-III and the Agni-IV form the quartet of Agni series, all of which can carry nuclear warheads. They are surface-tosurface missiles. These four and the Prithvi variants provide teeth to India’s nuclear deterrence posture. The DRDO has developed all these missiles. .


The first flight of the Agni-I took place on January 25, 2002. It was developed quickly in about 15 months. Soon after the Kargil war broke out in June 1999 and in the wake of nuclear tests by India and Pakistan in May 1998, India felt that it should develop a short-range missile that would fill the gap between Prithvi-II, which has a range of 250 km and the Agni-II, which can take out places 2,500 km away. So the single-stage Agni-I was born out of the two-stage Agni-II.

INS Arihant on Track The first indigenous nuclear submarine programme, INS Arihant, is on track and it is expected to go in for sea trials over the next few months, but the aircraft carrier being built at the Cochin Shipyard had suffered a setback, Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said. INS Arihant comes under the Advanced Technology Vessel programme that was launched in July 2009 in Visakhapatnam.

Sudarshan Shakti Aims to Transform Armed Forces President Pratibha Patil, Supreme Commander of the armed forces, witnessed one of the largest military exercises in recent times — “Sudarshan Shakti” — aimed at starting the transformation of the forces into a modern, lean, and agile fighting combination capable of leveraging new-age technologies. The exercise, in the deserts near Barmer in Rajasthan, helmed by the Southern Army Command and the South Western Air Command, led by formations under the Bhopal-based 21 Corps, a strike Corps also known by the name Sudarshan Chakra Corps, looks to build synergy between the Army and the Air Force in a network-centric environment to help face challenges of the 21 {+s} {+t} Century – including having to fight in an environment dominated by the threat from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

India, Russia Agree on Credit for Kudankulam Units 3, 4 : India and Russia have resolved their differences over the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu, according to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and highly placed Russian government sources. In fact, Dr. Singh was confident of “going ahead’’ 162


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current with Unit I of the Russia-supplied Kudankulam plant in a “couple of weeks.’’ The second one should follow after six months, he said at a joint press conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Separately, highly placed sources in the Russian nuclear energy sector said the two sides had sorted out their differences over the setting up of the next two units, and “maybe, more.” The sources claimed that the nuclear liability legislation, the bone of contention between the two sides, would not apply to these units as well. The Russian sources made it clear that Moscow’s proposal to New Delhi to set up a joint facility for production of nuclear fuel on the Russian soil would not lead to transfer of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies to India. “Russia will not under any circumstances violate its international commitments in this sphere,” the sources said referring to the Nuclear Suppliers Group’s ban on sale of sensitive nuclear technologies to countries that have not signed the NonProliferation Treaty. A joint statement released later noted that negotiations for Units 3 and 4 were at an advanced stage and the two sides “reiterated their commitment to the agreements reached previously on the construction of Russian design nuclear plants at “new sites’’ in India. On Russian insistence, India agreed to place an order for 42 Sukhois that will include replacements for the two crashed fighters. India and Russia also concluded negotiations on obtaining military and strategic communications from the Glonass constellation of satellites being put into orbit by Moscow as an alternative to the Westcontrolled GPS system.

Navy Floats out First Indigenous Aircraft Carrier The first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) of the Navy was floated out at the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), at a low-key event attended by senior shipping and naval officers. The floating ceremony was followed by a meeting to review the progress in the work being done on the aircraft carrier, a 40,000tonne fleet air defence platform of the Navy, which will be named after the legendary INS Vikrant.

Russia Hands over Nuclear Submarine to India Nuclear-powered attack submarine Nerpa that was handed over to India on a 10-year lease, is an


Akula-II class vessel that had recently finished sea trials. 10-year Lease The deal for the submarine, which is being transferred on a 10-year lease, was worth $920 million. The report said an Indian crew would sail the Akula-II class craft to its home base. “All of the naval tests and performance checks have been completed,” the Russian navy official said. The submarine, capable of remaining underwater for months, will be rechristened ‘INS Chakra’ and it would be for the first time in more than two decades that the Indian navy would have a nuclear attack submarine. When Russia makes the delivery, it will make India only the sixth operator of nuclear submarines in the world. The Akula-II class submarines are equipped with 28 nuclear-capable cruise missiles with a striking range of 3,000 km. The Indian version is reportedly expected to be armed with the 300-km Club nuclear-capable missiles. India had funded the completion of the submarine at Amur Shipyard before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. — PTI

President Inaugurates New SHAR Mission Control Centre Pratibha Patil visited the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR) at Sriharikota here on Monday and dedicated the new Mission Control Centre to the nation. She also witnessed a simulation of the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at the Mission Control Centre and various exhibits of the advances in space science and technology. The new centre has been developed with state-of-the-art facilities to meet the requirements for the launch of the Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MarkIII and future missions of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Later, she visited the First Launch Pad, where the integration of the soon-to-be-launched of PSLVC19 was in progress. In her address to ISRO scientists, the President said the entire country was looking forward to the successful flight-testing by the ISRO of the indigenous cryogenic stage on-board GSLV-1. “I understand that our next generation heavy-lift launch vehicle, GSLV Mark III, is also in an advanced stage of development.” 163



GRAIL-A reached its lunar orbit on Saturday. The two spacecraft have taken three months to reach the Moon as opposed to the usual threeday journey taken by the manned Apollo missions. The longer journey allowed scientists to better test the two probes. Scientists believe that the Moon was formed when a planet-sized object crashed into the Earth, throwing off a load of material that eventually became our planet’s airless, desolate satellite. How it heated up over time, creating a magma ocean that later crystallised, remains a mystery, despite 109 past missions to study the Moon since 1959 and the fact that 12 humans have walked on its surface.

China, India to Work for Largest Telescope China and India have catapulted to the forefront of astronomy research with their decision to join as partners in building a Hawaii telescope, which will be the world’s largest. China and India will pay a share of the construction cost, expected to top $1 billion, for the telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea volcano. They will also have a share of the observation time. The Thirty Meter Telescope’s segmented primary mirror, which will be nearly 100 feet or 30 metres long, will give it nine times the light-collecting area of the largest optical telescopes in use today. Its images will also be three times sharper. New Planets G C Anupama, professor at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, said the largest telescope in India has a 2-metre mirror, though India is building one that will be 4 metres. “So it’s a huge jump for us from 4-meter to 30-metre,” said Ms. Anupama in a telephone interview on the sidelines of the advisory committee’s meeting. “It definitely will take Indian astronomy to greater heights.” The telescope, known as TMT, will be able to observe planets that orbit stars other than the Sun and enable astronomers to watch new planets and stars being formed. The University of California system, the California Institute of Technology and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy founded the telescope, which is expected to be finished by 2018.China joined as an observer in 2009, followed by India the next year. Both are now partners, with representatives on the TMT board. Japan, which has its own large telescope


at Mauna Kea, the 8.3-metre Subaru, is also a partner. TMT may not hold the title for long, however, as a partnership of European countries plans to build the European Extremely Large Telescope, which would have a 42-metre, or 138-foot, mirror. — AP

Russian Mars Probe to Fall in Indian Ocean Russia’s stricken Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, is likely to fall into the Indian Ocean west of Indonesia. The crash area pinpointed by Roskosmos is in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, but the space agency said the time and place could change depending on atmospheric conditions, solar activity and probe rotation. The 13.5-tonne spacecraft was launched on November 9 on a mission to Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons. It was to deploy a Chinese miniprobe in Martian orbit and bring back a sample of Phobos soil. However, the probe stuck in Earth orbit as its upper-stage thrusters failed to fire. Roskosmos said most of the spacecraft would burn on re-entry in the atmosphere, but 20 to 30 parts with a total weight of up to 200 kg are expected to hit the Earth.

Second Nuclear Submarine Headed for Year-end Launch At a time when diminishing operational availability of its conventional submarine fleet has put the Navy in dire straits, it has some reason to cheer. The construction of a second Arihant-class nuclear submarine, to be named INS Aridaman, is moving fast at the Shipbuilding Centre (SBC) in Visakhapatnam. It is slated for launch by this yearend or in the first quarter of next year. “The boat, under outfitting now, is headed for a year-end launch. Meanwhile, hull fabrication is on for the third Arihant-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine,” the sources said. “Unlike surface vessels, submarines are fully outfitted before launch, which makes it a prerequisite for its weapons to be tested and ready well in advance.” The first submarine of the class, INS Arihant, launched in July 2009, has just completed its harbour acceptance trials and is set to undergo the crucial sea acceptance trials in February. “This will be followed by weapon trials before the submarine is formally inducted into the Navy, hopefully in 2013, when the country will attain the much-desired nuclear triad,” the sources said. 164


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current Concurrently, nuclear-powered submarine INS Chakra, borrowed on a 10-year lease from Russia mainly for training purposes, will be inducted in the latter half of 2012. Troubled by the eroding strength of its conventional underwater arm, the Navy’s ‘blue water’ aspirations remained in the realm of wishful thinking, with the force failing to add even a single submarine to its inventory in the last decade. With the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) programme to indigenously design and build nuclear-powered attack submarines gaining momentum after years of indecision and disorientation in the 1990s, the goal, claimed the sources, was within reach now. Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Nirmal Verma said last year that once commissioned, INS Arihant would be deployed on ‘deterrent (combat) patrol.’ Although it would be home-ported in Visakhapatnam, the submarine, armed with nucleartipped K-15 or B-5 ballistic missiles and having a range of about 750 km, would offer effective deterrence against Pakistan, the sources pointed out.

The missiles are developed under the Sagarika programme. Displacing about 6,000 tonnes, the 112 metrelong Arihant-class of boomer submarines are powered by indigenously-built 80-MW nuclear power plants. Each submarine is said to store 12 K-15 missiles besides torpedoes and torpedo-launched cruise missiles. Obsolete Fleet While the ATV project is on track, the Navy finds its back against the wall having to operate a flagging fleet of Russian Kilo-class and German HDW conventional diesel-electric submarines, 14 in all, 75 per cent of which are over the hill.

INS Krishna to make its Last Voyage Today After traversing the seas for 44 years — first as the Royal Navy’s HMS Andromeda from 1968 to November 1994 and in its current avatar as one of Indian Navy’s First Training Squadron Ships, INS Krishna, from August 1995 — is set to sing its swan song. It will embark on its last voyage, setting course for Mumbai from the Southern Naval Command’s south jetty for a minor refit before being decommissioned later this year. The news of the imminent retirement of the ‘Grey Mistress,’ as she


had been known in the Royal Navy, has indeed brought back dear memories in many ‘ex-HMS Andromeda shipmates’ besides Indian Navy personnel who have served aboard INS Krishna (pennant number F 46). It comes at a time when the HMS Andromeda Association is planning a reunion of Andromeda veterans, about 400 worldwide, in the last week.

India, European Union join Hands for Antipiracy Military Operations India and the European Union (EU) have joined hands for launching joint military operations in the Indian Ocean against piracy activities. EU has deployed four warships and supporting military ships of EU member-countries and is engaged with the Indian Navy in developing synergy in the region. “We have launched a concrete collaboration with India since December 2011 on anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean. We have put in place one of the biggest military operations — Operation Atlanta — against piracy in the Indian Ocean. We are developing a synergy with the Indian Navy in dealing with such situations,” Joao Cravinho, Ambassador and Head of EU Delegation to India, said.

India, Japan Coast Guard Units Demonstrate Capabilities A mock drill on the deep seas by the Indian and Japan Coast Guard units demonstrated the inherent capabilities of the two forces to jointly counter a range of maritime threats in the Asia-Pacific region. The Indo-Japan Coast Guard Joint Exercises, which alternates between India and Japan every year, was organised off the Bay of Bengal where fleets headed by the newly-commissioned Indian Coast Guard vessel Vishwast and the Japanese ship Settsu simulated a range of search-and-rescue, pollution control and anti-piracy operations. The joint exercise named “Sahyog-Kaijin-XI” was supervised by ICG Director-General ViceAdmiral M. P. Muralidharan and his Japanese counterpart Admiral Hisayasu Suzuki, Commandant of the Japan Coast Guard.

Rafale edges out Eurofighter India on Tuesday selected the French Fighter Rafale over the Eurofighter Typhoon in a multi-billion dollar contract for the supply of 126 Medium Multi165


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) — the country’s largest defence deal to date. Interestingly, for a company that faltered at the start, with the Defence Ministry indicating that the Rafale was out of the race, Dassault made a comeback and went on to win the bid. The decision to open exclusive negotiations with Dassault was acclaimed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who praised the “very high-level, fair and transparent competition involving the two European finalists.” The two aircraft were chosen from a list of six, including U.S. Boeing (F/A18) and Lockheed Martin (F-16), Russian MiG-35 and Swedish Saab (Gripen), in April last year. The deal is estimated to be worth $10.2 billion (Rs.54,000 crore). The plan includes acquiring 126 aircraft, 18 of them in fly-away condition and the rest to be made in India at the Hindustan Aeronautics facility under transfer of technology. For France, the deal is the third big defence contract that has come its way. In the current financial year, the Government of India cleared the $2.4 billion upgrade of 51 Mirage-2000 aircraft and the $970 million supply of MICA fire-and-forget missile for the same aircraft.

Potentially Habitable Planet Discovered International astronomers said on Thursday they have found the fourth potentially habitable planet outside our solar system with temperatures that could support water and life about 22 light-years from Earth. The team analysed data from the European Southern Observatory about a star known as GJ 667C, which is known as an M-class dwarf star and puts out much less heat than our Sun. However, at least three planets are orbiting close to the star, and one of them appears to be close enough that it likely absorbs about as much incoming light and energy as Earth, has similar surface temperatures and perhaps water. The new rocky planet, GJ 667Cc, orbits its star every 28.15 days — meaning its year equals about one Earth month — and has a mass at least 4.5 times that of Earth, according to the research published inAstrophysical Journal Letters . Other planets circling the same star could include a gas-giant and an additional super-Earth.

Navy, Air Force Stage Network-centric Exercise The Navy staged a network-centric exercise off


the Southern coast and displayed cooperation the Indian Air Force in its annual TROPEX (Theatre-level Readiness and Operational Exercise). The display was witnessed by Defence Minister A.K. Antony. Against the backdrop of the Indian Ocean, two broad but well-networked fleets provided a glimpse of the Forces’ prowess and proficiency in operating their latest acquisitions in a dense electronic environment.

Interceptor Missile Scores with Direct Hit India moved closer to the deployment of the fledgling, home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system when an interceptor missile achieved a direct hit and destroyed an incoming target missile at an altitude of 15 km over the Bay of Bengal. With this success, India joined a select band of four countries which have ballistic missile defence capabilities. Soon after the ‘hostile missile,’ a modified surface-to-surface Prithvi, was launched at 10.10 a.m. from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Orissa, the interceptor, AAD-05, was fired from the Wheeler Island. Equipped for the first time with an omnidirectional warhead and travelling at a speed of Mach 5-6, the interceptor homed in on the target and smashed it to smithereens five minutes later. India plans to put in place a two-tiered BMD system in two phases for endo and exo-atmospheric interception of incoming enemy missiles. While the first phase seeks to intercept and kill ballistic missiles having a range of less than 2,000 km, the second phase envisages destroying those with ranges of more than 2,000 km.

Dassault, Reliance ink MoU for Collaboration in defence Sector French defence major Dassault Aviation has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Reliance Industries for partnering in defence and homeland security sector. The MoU comes soon after the Defence Ministry on January 31 had offered Dassault the multi-billion dollar deal to supply 126 combat aircraft to the IAF.

India, Riyadh to set up defence Cooperation Panel India and Saudi Arabia have decided to set up a joint panel on defence ties. It will also explore ways of cooperation in fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean 166


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current region. At a meeting between Defence Minister A.K. Antony and his Saudi counterpart Prince Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, the two sides expressed concern over the rise in piracy in the Indian Ocean region and agreed to “explore practical cooperation and an active role of the Royal Saudi Navy in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium construct.”

Mi-17 V5 Induction into IAF Today The Indian Air Force will add muscle and strength to its fleet of medium-lift helicopters with the induction of upgraded Russian Mi-17 V5 helicopters. The first lot of 21 of the 80 helicopters to be procured as per an agreement signed with Russia four years ago arrived earlier. The armour-plated armed helicopter has effective firepower and powerful engines that enhances the payload carriage capability at higher altitudes. Mi-17 V5, an upgrade of Mi-17, has stateof-the-art avionics and onboard navigation systems. It is a glass cockpit variant — the first of its kind to get inducted into the IAF. It has autopilot that is compatible with the latest generation (Gen-III) night vision goggles.

Three more Nuclear Fuel Complexes to be Set up The Department of Atomic Energy plans to set up three more nuclear fuel complexes in the wake of a massive plan to increase the capacity of nuclear power plants to 63,000 MW by 2032, from the current level of 4,780 MW. At present, only Hyderabad has such complex. It produces fuel bundles and other components for all the 20 reactors that are in operation in the country. The first of the three additional plants would come up at Kota in Rajasthan and would be used to supply fuel to the four 700 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors being built at neighbouring Rawatbhata and Kakrapar in Gujarat. The sites for the other two are yet to be finalised.

Use of Enriched Uranium in PHWRs Proposed The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL) plan to use slightly enriched uranium (SEU) in the future 700 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) instead of the current technology of using natural uranium as the fuel in all the PHWRs of


Indian nuclear programme until now. This was stated was by R. N. Jayaraj, Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) in Hyderabad, in a presentation made at a two-day India International Nuclear Symposium (IINS), which concluded here on Thursday. The IINS was organised by the Londonbased World Nuclear Association (WNA). Natural uranium contains only 0.7 per cent of the fissile isotope Uranium-235, the rest being the fertile isotope Uranium-238, which gets converted to Plutonium-239 in the reactor by neutron absorption. The SEU, which is being proposed to be used in future 700 MWe PHWRs, will contain 1.1 per cent of U-235. The Light Water Reactors (LWRs) of the type being built at Kudankulam and the types that are likely to be supplied by other foreign vendors use low enriched uranium (LEU), which has 3 to 5 per cent U-235 enrichment. Advantage The advantage of using SEU, according to Mr. Jayaraj, is the higher nuclear burn-up that can be achieved. Burn-up is a measure of the amount thermal energy that is extracted from a given amount of nuclear fuel. The burn-up achieved with natural uranium in the present Indian PHWRs is about 67007000 megawatt-days (MWd)/tonne (t) of uraniumoxide. The burn-up that is achievable with SEU in PHWRs would be about three times this value (about 21,000 MWD/t), Mr. Jayaraj said. Use of SEU in Indian PHWRs was tested in one of the Indian reactors, according to reliable sources in the NPCIL. The physics and energy production characteristics have been extensively studied by introducing few elements of SEU in some fuel bundles in the reactor core. The 700 MWe contains 4704 fuel bundles, each containing 37 fuel elements each. Promising Results The results are apparently very promising and it is felt that SEU can now be introduced as a significant fraction of the fuel make-up in PHWRs, even up to 40 per cent based on appropriate regulatory approvals from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), NPCIL sources said. One of the key arguments in favour of this approach is that, if SEU can now be procured from international market, why not make the best use of it in safeguarded PHWRs of the Indian programme. Envisaging an imminent approval of the regulatory authorities, the NFC has already drawn up 167


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs plans to produce SEU fuel bundles from the year 2018. It has projected a requirement of about 10,000 bundles of SEU in the beginning, which could grow up to 55,000 bundles by 2030.

Farmers to benefit from Tropical Legumes II project A second phase of an agricultural research for development project aimed at improving the livelihoods of poor farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia has been recently agreed on. This is one of seven grants which Bill Gates announced in Rome at the 35th Session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). This announcement, nearly $200 million in grants, brings the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s total commitment to agriculture to more than $2 billion since the program began in 2006. Three Year Project The three-year, US$21 million project known as Tropical Legumes II (TL II), is part of a ten-year plan which seeks to improve the livelihoods of 60 million small farmers and their families in 15 countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It is also expected to bring about US$ 1.3 billion in added value to the productivity of the target crops, namely: chickpea, common bean, cowpea, groundnut, pigeonpea and soybean. The project is expected to help small farmers overcome productivity constraints such as drought, pest and disease problems, and unavailability and lack of access to quality seed of improved legume varieties.

Torpedo, Akash missile to be handed over to Navy and IAF tomorrow The indigenously developed advanced lightweight torpedo and the Akash missile system will be handed over to the Navy and the Indian Air Force respectively. Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad, is the production agency for both the torpedo and the missile. The Navy has christened it Torpedo Advanced Light (TAL). The Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), Visakhapatnam, which comes under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has designed and developed the TAL. The Defence Research and Development


Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, developed Akash, a surface-to-air missile. Torpedoes are underwater missiles which are fired from ships, submarines or helicopters against ships and submarines. The TAL is about 2.75 metres long, weighs 220 kg and packs 50 kg of explosives. It is an anti-submarine torpedo and can travel upto a maximum distance of seven km before taking out an enemy submarine. It can be launched from ships, helicopters and aircraft. The Navy has placed an order for 25 TALs.

Nirbhay Likely to be Test-fired in April The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a new sub-sonic cruise missile called Nirbhay (Fearless in Sanskrit), which may be test-fired in April. This is the first time that India has developed a cruise missile that will travel at a sub-sonic speed (less than the speed of sound). India and Russia have jointly developed BrahMos, a supersonic, cruise missile, which travels for 290 km at 2.8 Mach (2.8 times the speed of sound). India felt the need for developing a sub-sonic cruise missile with a long range, and the upshot is Nirbhay. The Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a DRDO facility in Bangalore, has designed Nirbhay, the equivalent of Lakshya, which is a pilotless target aircraft developed by the ADE. Nirbhay has many technologies derived from Lakshya. The maximum speed of Lakshya is 0.65 Mach. Nirbhay is India’s equivalent of Tomahawk, a long-range, sub-sonic cruise missile, developed by the U.S. Nirbhay is a two-stage, surface-to-surface missile. While a booster engine would “kick the first stage” from the ground, the second stage has a turboprop engine, akin to an aircraft’s. It can carry multiple payloads and engage several targets. “Even if there are multiple targets, it can pick out a target and attack it. It is a loitering missile; it can go round and round a target, perform several manoeuvres and take it apart. It has precision, endurance and accuracy. It is an important missile,” DRDO officials said. With a range of more than 750 km, Nirbhay can remain in the air for a long time. Capable of flying at the height of a tree (so, it is known as “tree-top missile), it can soar to a minimum of 10 km and a maximum of 50 km. The DRDO will also soon test-fire Helina, the helicopter-fired version of Nag, the third-generation anti-tank missile. Helina is a portmanteau term, 168


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current standing for helicopter and Nag (the cobra). Nag has ‘fire and forget’ and ‘top attack’ capability. Carrying an eight-kg warhead, it has an infra-red seeker and can destroy enemy tanks four km away. Based on the information available from the target, Helina will lock on to it midway through its flight and zero in on to it. A modified version of Arjun-Mark I main battle tank will prove its mettle by firing a LAHAT missile from an Army range this month. The LAHAT (Laser Homing Attack or Laser Homing Anti-Tank missile) is a third-generation semi-active low-weight anti-tank missile. This version was fired from the Arjun tank in 2004. The Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, a DRDO facility at Avadi, designed and developed the Arjun.

Dahanu Coast Guard Station Commissioned Vice Admiral, M.P. Muralidharan, Indian Coastal Guard commissioned the Dahanu Coast Guard establishment, fourth in Maharashtra. “Dahanu Coast guard station will be a major milestone for Indian coast guard in augmenting its prowess and presence along the Maharashtra coast,” Vice Admiral Muralidharan said. He added that the station will be assigned the responsibility of coordinating various maritime operations like surveillance, search and rescue, pollution response and coastal security among others and will be instrumental in effectively sanitizing the area to check illegal intrusion and other nefarious activities. Speaking to reporters he said that whilst the station would be a hub in the coastal security network, it will also play an important role of intelligencegathering and sharing with other stake holders. The station will also have experienced and highly professional rapid action team to thwart maritime security challenges.

India Joins Select Group of Nations in Making Tubes for Nuclear Plants India joined a select band of nations when the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) successfully manufactured critical tubes required for steam generators of nuclear power plants. Currently, only three companies in the world are producing the UNS NO8800 U tubes with NFC becoming the fourth entity. The first tubing consignment was handed over to Larsen & Toubro, which is manufacturing eight


steam generators for Kakrapara (3 and 4 units) and Rajasthan (7 and 8 units) nuclear power plants being set up by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). Each steam generator will need 2,500 tubes and NFC would be supplying 20,000 tubes for the eight steam generators by the middle of 2013-14. In tune with L& T’s strategy of promoting self-reliance, the company had opted to source the tubes from NFC rather than importing them. To pool the strengths of both the organisations, NFC and L &T have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for long-term manufacture and supply of SG tubes, establishing the complete supply chain for the tubes.

2. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY MISCELLANEOUS India Loses Ground in ICT Ranking India has slipped five places in the network readiness index rankings of countries released by the World Economic Forum and the business school INSEAD. The rankings indicate the relative position of countries in information and communication technologies (ICT). The rankings, presented in the 10th anniversary edition of the Global Information Technology Report 2010-11, paints a picture of an India that has fallen behind in “most indicators.” This has resulted in its slipping to 48 from the 43rd rank last year. The rankings assess the “conduciveness of national environments for ICT development and diffusion, including the broad business climate,” regulatory aspects, the human and hard infrastructure needed for promotion, the degree of preparation for and interest in using ICT by key stakeholders and the extent of its use by them. India has lost ground most in the ‘readiness component’ of the index, which is made up of individual, business and government readiness subcomponents. The country’s position in readiness slipped to 33 overall from 22 last year, the fall being the steepest in the individual readiness parameters, which include quality of the education system, adult literacy and tariff for fixed phone and fixed broadband Internet, among others. Among the BRIC countries, China continued its upward climb in the rankings to reach the 36th spot, while Brazil was ranked 56th and Russian 169


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs Federation, 77th. China, ranked 59 in 2006-07, has been ranked a high 16 in the readiness component, 36 in the usage component and 57 in the environment component.

NDMA fine-tuning network: Sashidhar The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is in the process of fine-tuning the communication network after setting up the tsunami early warning centre, its chairman M. Sashidhar Reddy said here. At a seminar — ‘3/11 Japan Disaster - Social, Operational & Technological Lessons’ — he said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked the NDMA to be ready with action plans to tackle the situation in times of natural calamities and experts were now working on it. “Our mandate is to prepare detailed guidelines for every situation, but the real challenge here would be to see that they are implemented,” he said.

Now, a Revolutionary Paper Phone Canadian scientists have developed what they say is the world’s first interactive paper phone, as thin and flexible as a credit card, which is set to herald a new generation of computers. Extremely lightweight and made of a thin-film, the prototype device can do everything a smartphone currently does — from making calls to playing music to sharing books. And most impressively, the PaperPhone uses no power when nobody is interacting with it, the reported.

Small Units Urged to Make the Most of Cloud Computing Minister for Large and Medium Industries Murugesh R. Nirani has urged small units in the State to make the most of cloud-based computing systems to boost productivity. Addressing a seminar on cloud computing for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), Mr. Nirani said: “Cloud-based computing has brought computing power within the reach of small units.” Cloud-based systems host hardware at remote locations, which can be harnessed through the Internet. New Opportunities Mr. Nirani pointed out that the rapid growth of Internet in the last decade offered new


opportunities for small companies. “Cloud-based solutions are particularly useful because they are costeffective and offer unprecedented scalability,” he observed. The provision of software as a service, for instance, had changed they way businesses function, he added.

New Remote Sensing Data Policy Eases Curbs The Union government has revised its 10-yearold remote sensing data policy, easing restrictions on high-resolution satellite imagery of ‘sensitive areas’ in the country. At a time when use of satellite images for all sort of purposes has grown dramatically, the new policy tries, as the earlier one did, to balance the demand for higher resolution data with the country’s security considerations. But these days, high resolution images of Indian cities are freely accessible through Internet resources such as Google Maps and Google Earth. Fifteen years back, when India’s IRS-1C was launched, its panchromatic camera, with a resolution of 5.8 metres, gave the highest resolution images available from any civilian satellite in the world. Large blocks of imagery taken by the satellite over the country were, however, considered sensitive and not released. Each of those blocks could cover hundreds of square kilometres on the ground. A few years later, in 1999, the American Ikonos satellite, which could take images with a resolution of one metre, was launched. In 2001, India launched its own one-metre-resolution remote sensing satellite, the Technology Experiment Satellite, which was primarily intended for the security services. The Cartosat-2 satellite, which the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched in 2007, gives images with a resolution of one metre. The Cartosat-2A and Cartosat-2B that followed can take images with a resolution of 0.8 metres. But much higher resolution images are available from U.S. commercial satellites. The QuickBird’s cameras have a resolution of 0.6 metres; the WorldView-1 (0.5 metres); WorldView-2 (0.46 metres); and GeoEye-1 (0.41 metres). As a result, the views of many Indian cities on Google Maps and Google Earth, which use commercially available imagery, can have a resolution of about half a metre. 170



New Internet Security Software from Appin Appin Security Group announced the launch of Fort Appin, a new Internet security software that defends computers against viruses, hackers, spam, and identity theft. Priced at Rs.750 for single user annual licence for businesses, the software also has a special module built in Appin labs that does heuristic-based malware blocking and removal thereby providing zero-day protection even when the signatures have not been updated.

New Radar System for Himachal The Himachal Pradesh Government has finally completed the process of land allotment for a new weather centre at Jakhu hill in Shimla. It is here that the Indian Meteorological Department proposes to install a radar system in order to provide early warning of natural calamities in the hill State. The radar would have the ability to monitor and forecast weather conditions every six hours with precision and area specificity.

Potato Genome Decoded An international team of scientists has decoded the full DNA sequence of the potato for the first time, a breakthrough that holds out the promise of boosting harvests of one of the world’s most important staple crops. Researchers at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee in Scotland say it should soon be possible to develop improved varieties of potato much more quickly. The genome of an organism is a map of how all of its genes are put together. Each gene controls different aspects of how the organism grows and develops.

India to Acquire Plane to Study Monsoon India is to soon have an air-borne laboratory to study the interactions between clouds and “aerosols” – tiny suspended particles in the atmosphere – as part of an exercise to better understand the phenomenon of monsoon. Speaking at the foundation day of his Ministry, he said, “we will soon commission an air-borne research platform”. According to senior Ministry officials, it would be a small aircraft that would carry several instruments on-board to study the interactions


between clouds and aerosols as well as cloud physics and greenhouse gases. Presently, the Ministry hires aircraft for conducting such experiments. The aerial laboratory would be designed in such a way that it could be used for six to eight hours in a day for at least 300 days every year. Among other things, it would be equipped for undertaking studies on cyclones and for determining their tracks.

Development of Bt Brinjal a Case of Biopiracy The development of Bt brinjal was a case of bio-piracy, according to the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA). According to sources, the NBA has finally concluded its year-long investigation and recommended action against the U.S. agri-business giant Monsanto and its Indian collaborators who developed and promoted the controversial, genetically modified vegetable. A decision to “take the case to its logical conclusion” was taken at an NBA meeting on June 20, according to official sources, who say this means Monsanto & Co. could face criminal proceedings. When the NBA met this week, it discussed “comprehensive evidence” and “supporting proof” gathered against Bt brinjal’s promoters, say sources. The charge against Bt brinjal’s developers – which include Monsanto’s Indian partner Mahyco as well as Indian universities and research organisations – is that they allegedly accessed nine Indian varieties of brinjal to develop their genetically modified vegetable without prior permission from the NBA or the relevant State and local boards. This is a violation of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, according to the Environmental Support Group (ESG) which lodged the formal complaint with the Karnataka Biodiversity Board on February 15, 2010, soon after the Government put a moratorium on Bt brinjal on health and safety grounds.

Oldest’ Microbe Fossils Found in Australia The fossilised remains of microbes that lived beside the sea in the earliest chapter of life on Earth have been discovered in a slab of rock in Western Australia. Researchers found the tiny fossils in rock formations that date to 3.4bn years ago, making them strong candidates to be the oldest microbes found. 171


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs Some clung to grains of sand that had gathered on one of the first known stretches of beach on Earth.

God Particle, if it Exists, will be Found by 2012 The Large Hadron Collider will be able to find the Higgs Boson — a hypothetical particle that may explain why elementary particles have mass — the “latest by the end of 2012” or “we will exclude it,” Rolf Heuer, director-general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), said . Even if the particle was not found, “it would be a fantastic discovery.” The question of the particle’s existence, “the Shakespearean question — to be or not to be” would be settled by the end of 2012, he said.

Sibal introduces new plan for better spectrum management As the Communications and Information Technology Ministry gears to introduce three new crucial policies — the much-awaited National Telecom Policy-2011; the Electronics Policy; and the IT Policy— Union Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal unveiled the National Frequency Allocation Plan-2011 (NAFP) that will help in better management of spectrum, besides development and promotion of indigenous manufacturing and technologies in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. To be effective from October 1, the NFAP-2011 contains spectrum allocation for various radio communication services and applications in different frequency bands. It will provide the basis for development, manufacturing and spectrum utilisation activities, both for the government and private sectors. “In today’s society, radio spectrum is becoming increasingly important for all walks of life and needs to be managed rationally. “While spectrum management has always been important, the complexity of the task has been compounded by the proliferation of both traditional and entirely new radio spectrum frequency- using services in recent years. It is essential that these scarce resources be used rationally, optimally, efficiently and economically so that equitable access could be available to a large variety of radio communication network in an interference-free radio environment,” Mr. Sibal told


reporters after releasing the policy document. The Minister said planning of frequency bands for various services and applications for their co-existence without constraining the existing assignments was essential. “The growing demand for information-rich content, faster access and mobility by both commercial and captive users is increasingly being met by broadband wireless application. The new plan will help the ICT sector prepare for future growth and bring about revolution in the sector, thereby leading to enhanced economic growth,” Mr. Sibal added.

Hopes fading on detecting ‘God Particle’ B.G. Sidharth, Director-General, B.M. Birla Science Centre, said hopes were fading for the detection of the ‘God Particle’ or Higgs boson with the Fermi National Laboratory’s Tevatron near Chicago just having been closed. The Higgs Boson is the corner stone of what is called the Standard Model of particle physics which stood its ground for a few decades, he said in a press release. This particle has also been called ‘God Particle’ because as originally conceived by the British physicist, Peter Higgs in the mid-sixties, this particle would endow mass to all other particles in the universe. Upheaval of sorts “If the Higgs Boson does not exist as now appears probable, this would be nothing short of an upheaval, calling for major modification in our ideas of physics, perhaps even theories of the birth and early life universe”, he added.

Lab of the Big Bang experiment leaves Pratibha Patil mesmerised President Pratibha Patil visited the lab of the prestigious France-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research, commonly known as CERN, where she patted Indian scientists for their contributions to cutting edge-research work. Ms. Patil, who is on a State visit to Switzerland, drove to the CERN lab that is situated just minutes away from the Swiss border. An inquisitive Ms. Patil, who was mesmerised by the lab known for its cutting-edge research work in physics, left CERN’s Director General Rolf-Dieter Heuer pondering for answers on many occasions. The experiment had aimed to recreate the conditions of 172


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current the Big Bang, when the universe is thought to have exploded into existence about 14 billion years ago. “I am also proud at the continuing contributions of Indian scientists here,” the President told PTI. The focus of the visit was the ALICE project, one of the largest experiments in the world devoted to research in the physics of matter at an infinitely small scale, in the laboratory. When Mr. Heuer claimed that by next year the European nuclear research centre would be able to get to the truth about Higgs Boson, a hypothetical massive elementary particle predicted to exist by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics, Ms. Patil was keen to know how it would benefit the future of mankind.

Draft IT policy targets $200 b exports by 2020 Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal unveiled the draft National Policy on Information Technology 2011 that envisages taking the overall revenue from the sector from $89 billion as of today to $300 billion by 2020, besides creating additional one-crore jobs. He also hinted that once the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) was in place, the Centre might extend tax holiday under the Software Technology Park of India (SPTI) scheme, which expired in March this year, besides giving incentives to small and medium enterprises engaged in the IT sector. Exploring new markets Aimed at further consolidating the position of the Indian IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sector in the global arena, the draft policy has set the target of achieving $200 billion exports target by 2020 against the current level of $59 billion. “Today, 80 per cent of the IT sector revenue comes from exports, mainly from North America and Europe. While we have seen IT sector exports growing at 30 per cent, this year it may be around 15 per cent due to global financial crisis…we need to diversify our exports by exploring new markets to sustain the growth momentum,” he pointed out. The draft policy, which will be available for comments from public and various stakeholders for a month, also focuses on gaining a significant global market share in cloudbased technologies and services, and mobile-based value added services. “The focus is on deployment


of ICT in all sectors of the economy and providing IT solutions to the world. It also aims to strengthen and enhance India’s position as the global IT hub and to use IT as an engine for rapid, inclusive and sustainable growth in the national economy,” he added. The draft policy will also look into formulating fiscal and other incentives to attract investment in this sector in Tier II and Tier III cities, besides promoting innovation and research and design in cutting-edge technologies and in strategic sectors such as defence, space and atomic energy. Referring to the launch of world’s cheapest tablet PC ‘Aakash’, Mr. Sibal said the aim was to integrate Internet and mobile-based delivery of services onto a common platform to enable seamless, ubiquitous, secure and personalised delivery of government and non-government services throughout the country.

New policy rings in free roaming Seeking to eliminate the ambiguities of the past, the draft National Telecom Policy 2011 will remove national roaming charges, make broadband available on demand, bring in a ‘one-nation, onelicence’ policy and allow mobile numbers to be ported to any part of the country. Under the new draft policy unveiled by Communications Minister Kapil Sibal, users will be allowed to port their mobile numbers, keeping the same number, even while switching service areas. It proposes to accord the telecom industry the status of an infrastructure sector, helping it get easy credit flow for funding rollout plans or expansion. With the policy aiming at a ‘onenation, one-licence’ regime, the distinction between local and STD calls will vanish. Telecom operators would not require separate licences for operations in various parts of the country, and a single licence would suffice. “We will seek Telecom Regulatory Authority of India recommendations on new licences, migration to new licences and [an] exit policy,” Mr. Sibal said.

Low carbon aviation fuel developed Leading private international carrier, Virgin Atlantic, said India could soon be producing a worldfirst low carbon aviation fuel with just half the carbon footprint of the standard fossil fuel alternative. 173


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs Fuel production process In partnership with LanzaTech, it has achieved a breakthrough in aviation fuel technology. The new process will see waste gases from industrial steel production being captured, fermented and chemically converted using Swedish Biofuels technology to be used as a jet fuel. The revolutionary fuel production process recycles waste gases that would otherwise be burnt into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. India, which is amongst the world’s largest steel producers, will be one of the first countries where the fuel will be produced as LanzaTech and partners develop facilities in the country. Within three years, Virgin Atlantic routes from Delhi to London Heathrow could see flights running on the new fuel. A demonstration plant will be commissioned in China this year and the first commercial operation will be in place by 2014. A facility in India should follow around six months later. The technology is currently being piloted in New Zealand. After successful implementation, a wider roll-out could include operations in the U.K. and the rest of the world, Virgin Atlantic said in a statement.

Cabinet approves ordinance to phase out analogue cable TV by 2014 Analogue cable television will become obsolete in India in three years time, with the government deciding to promulgate an ordinance to make the digitalisation of cable services mandatory by 2014. The Union Cabinet approved the Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s proposal to promulgate the Digitalisation of Analogue Cable Systems Ordinance. The shift would mean that all customers must have a set top box whether they want to receive freeto-air or pay channels. They will be able to watch high quality channels of their choice on an a la carte basis, and are likely to have access to internet and telephone through the same digital cable. Broadcasters may be able to generate more revenue directly from subscribers, and thus reduce their dependence on TRPs and advertisers.

Creation of National Optical Fibre Network approved The Union Cabinet approved a scheme for the


creation of a ‘National Optical Fibre Network’ (NOFN) for providing broadband connectivity to panchayats at an initial cost of over Rs.20,000 crore, which will help in offering governance, banking and health services online. The project aims to extend the existing optical fibre network, which is available up to district and block levels, to the gram panchayat level, by utilising Rs.20,000 crore from the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund. A similar amount of investment is likely to be made by the private sector complementing the NOFN infrastructure while providing services to individual users. As per a study conducted by the World Bank, with every 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration, there is a 1.4 per cent increase in GDP growth. “The Rs.20,000-crore project is likely to be completed in the next two years…the NOFN will also facilitate implementation of various e-governance initiatives such as e-health, e-banking and e-education, thereby facilitating inclusive growth,” Telecom Secretary R. Chandrashekhar told journalists. Initially, the broadband project would be executed by the stateowned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and other institutions such as RailTel, Power Grid and the Gas Authority of India. For the implementation and execution, the Cabinet has approved the formation of a special purpose vehicle with equity from the Government of India, Mr. Chandrashekhar said. The proposed NOFN will enable effective and faster implementation of various mission mode egovernance projects amounting to around Rs.50,000 crore initiated by the Department of Information Technology as well as the delivery of a whole range of electronic services in the above areas by the private sector those in rural areas.

Nod for GSI restructuring The Union Cabinet approved the restructuring of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), which includes rightsizing its strength by filling up posts over a 10-year period. Mission Mode It approved constitution of geophysics, chemistry and engineering science, and technology streams as organised services so as to bring them at par with the geology stream. “The restructuring will also facilitate the GSI to effectively function in mission mode with well defined objectives, 174


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current encourage individual and group development and facilitate specialisation.” The Cabinet approval was based on the recommendations of a high-power committee set up by the Ministry of Mines to review the GSI’s functioning and assess its capacity and capabilities to meet emerging geosciences challenges, both national and global. The recommendations, when implemented, would immensely enhance the GSI’s capacity and capability in addressing emerging challenges, especially in augmenting the resource base, both for essential and strategic minerals. “It will also facilitate the GSI to undertake issues having immediate societal relevance like climate change, glacial retreats, desertification and coastline changes as well as geogenic issues.”

First-of-its-kind weather satellite launched The U.S. space agency launched a first-of-its kind satellite that will send back data on weather and climate to help forecasters predict major storms and other changes in the environment. “Liftoff of the Delta II with the NPP satellite, blazing the way in new technology for climate research and weather forecasting,” said NASA commentator George Diller. The $1.5-billion National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) took off aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 2:48 a.m. local time (0948 GMT). The satellite will carry five instruments to study temperature and water in the atmosphere, how clouds and aerosols affect temperature, and how plants on land and in the ocean respond to environmental changes. It is one of 14 Earth observation missions currently being managed by NASA. Project managers said they hope it will operate for about five years. The NPP — which will circle the Earth at a height of 820 km in a polar orbit — will help fill in data gaps left by European weather observatories, NOAA scientist Louis Uccellini said earlier this month. He said the satellite was carrying infrared and microwave instruments that are “basically equivalent to a slight improvement over what we are using with the European satellites.”

China’s supercomputer surprises U.S. experts China has made its first supercomputer based


on Chinese microprocessor chips, an advance that surprised high-performance U.S. computing specialists. The announcement was made at a technical meeting held in Jinan, China, organised by industry and government organisations. The new machine, the Sunway BlueLight MPP, was installed in September at the National Supercomputer Center in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province in eastern China. The Sunway system, which can perform about 1,000 trillion calculations per second a petaflop will probably rank among the 20 fastest computers in the world. More significantly, it is composed of 8,700 ShenWei SW1600 microprocessors, designed at a Chinese computer institute and manufactured in Shanghai. Currently, the Chinese are about three generations behind the state-of-art chip making technologies used by world leaders such as the United States, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. “This is a bit of a surprise,” said Jack Dongarra, a computer scientist at the University of Tennessee and a leader of the Top500 project, a list of the world’s fastest computers. Last fall, another Chinese based supercomputer, the Tianhe-1A, created an international sensation when it was briefly ranked as the world’s fastest, before it was displaced in the spring by a rival Japanese machine, the K Computer, designed by Fujitsu.

World’s Lightest Material Developed Scientists have developed what they claim is the world’s lightest material — a metal with a density of 0.9 mg/cc. A team from the University of California, the California Institute of Technology and the HRL Laboratories says that the new material redefines the limits of lightweight materials because of its unique “micro-lattice” cellular architecture. The scientists were able to make a material that consists of 99.99 per cent air by designing the 0.01 per cent solid at the nanometre, micron and millimetre scales, the latest issue of Science reported. “The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” said lead scientist Tobias Schaedler of HRL. The material’s architecture allows unprecedented mechanical behaviour for a metal, including complete recovery from compression exceeding 50 per cent strain and high energy 175


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs absorption, say the scientists. “Materials actually get stronger as the dimensions are reduced to the nanoscale. Combine this with the possibility of tailoring the architecture of the micro-lattice and you have a unique cellular material,” team member Lorenzo Valdevit said. Developed for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, the novel material could be used for battery electrodes and acoustic, vibration or shock energy absorption, say the scientists.

7 Firms get C-DoT Knowhow In a move that would give the much-needed push to broadband penetration in the country, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) transferred indigenously-developed Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology to seven telecom equipment manufacturers, including private players. The GPON technology is a pivotal component required for broadband connectivity over optical fibre. “The cost-effective GPON will prove to be a game-changer technology for India…it can be used to provide triple play (voice, video and data). The present GPON standards specify 2.5 Gbps (Gigabit per second) downstream and 1.25 Gbps upstream data capability to customer premise. Apart from urban areas, especially multi-dwelling units, the large data carrying capability is important for Indian villages too where prevailing low literacy levels will necessitate information with greater graphic andaudio content for better dissemination. It will give a boost to broadband connectivity across India,” said Union Minister of Communications and IT Kapil Sibal. Besides, voice telephony, high speed Internet access and IPTV, the C-DOT GPON has provision to carry cable TV signal too, all on a single optical fibre. Another important advantage of GPON is that it can carry information from a central office to subscribers up to 60 km away without needing any intermediate repeaters thus doing away with the requirement of power, shelter and upkeep services at the intermediate locations. In his address, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot said the technology was well-suited for the Indian environment. Pointing out that the GPON technology has been tested, validated, field-evaluated and made operational in BSNL’s network in Ajmer (Rajasthan), he said: “It will help fulfil our


requirements of major national programmes like the National Optical Fibre Network and the State Wide Area Network. Besides taking care of our needs in defence, railways and other strategic sectors, the technology can also be used for providing broadband connectivity in rural and remote areas,” Mr. Pilot said.

State-of-the-art Technologies Required to Counter Bio-terror Scientists from 10 laboratories, including the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, are working on an ambitious, Rs. 300-crore project, to develop technologies for detection and protection against Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) agents. This was stated by DRDE director M.P. Kaushik at the inaugural session of a two-day national conference on ‘Biological Disaster Management: A step towards building national capacity and resilience — The role of industry under PPP,’ organised by the FICCI here. According to Mr. Kaushik, bio-terrorism was the number one threat among chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. He stated that more attention was needed to be paid to counter bio-terrorism. State-of-the-art technologies were required for detection, protection and mitigation along with greater awareness among all sections to counter the threats through better preparedness. Quoting a WHO study, he said that dispersal of a 50 kilo bacterial agent on a five lakh population could result in 95,000 deaths. Referring to stoppage of vaccine production against small pox following its elimination, he said that this could lead to a serious situation if the disease re-emerged due to lax bio-security measures or if used by terrorists.

For now, the Higgs Boson Exists only in Theory Physicists said they had narrowed the search for the elusive sub-atomic Higgs Boson particle that would confirm the way science describes the Universe. Experiments at Europe’s giant atom smasher have “reduced the window where scientists think they will find the Higgs Boson,” also known as the God Particle, said Bruno Mansoulie, a researcher at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research 176


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current (CERN). The Higgs Boson is the missing link is the so-called Standard Model of physics, which explains how the basic building blocks of all matter fit together. Its existence — if confirmed — would explain in a single stroke the mystery of what gives this invisible constellation of particles mass. Such a discovery would rank in importance with major breakthroughs of the last century, going back to Einstein’s first formulation of quantum physics. For now, however, the Higgs Boson only exists only in theory. If it turns of to be a mirage, it would force scientists back to the drawing board to rewrite the textbook of particle physics. CERN reported on Tuesday the midpoint results from two separate experiments, which independently arrived at the same conclusion, pointed to activity within a certain range of mass that would be consistent with the Higgs Boson. The Web-cast presentation was made before several hundred scientists in an atmosphere charged with excitement and punctuated with applause. Taken together, the results provide “tantalising hints” that the sought-after particle is hiding inside a narrow range of mass, CERN said. “It’s too early to draw definitive conclusions, we need more data,” said Fabiola Gianotti, head of the ATLAS experiment, adding, “But we have established a solid foundation for passionately exciting months ahead.” However, she said that a definitive answer was expected with 12 months. — AFP

U.S. Panel finds Gaps in Bioethics Protections Following last year’s revelations that U.S. researchers had conducted macabre human experiments on Guatemalan prison and mental hospital inmates between 1946 and 1948, a presidential Bioethics Commission has said it could not unequivocally say all federally funded research provided human subjects with “optimal protections against avoidable harms and unethical treatment”. Apology After issuing a public apology to Guatemala, President Barack Obama urged the bipartisan presidential Commission to oversee a thorough review of regulations and international standards to assess whether they adequately protected human


participants in federally funded research, no matter where such research occurred. The Commission recommended several areas where immediate changes could be made to current rules and procedures, which could increase accountability and thereby reduce the likelihood of harm or unethical treatment. In returning the results of its extensive review, the Bioethics Commission said a key reason why it still could not conclude that adequate protections were in place was the limited ability of some governmental agencies to identify basic information about current human subjects research.

Science needs 2.5 Times more Investment: Advisory Council If India is to position itself as a global leader in science, it will need to invest 2.5 times its current allocation, believe members of the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. While the 11th Five Year Plan earmarked Rs. 72,000 crore for science, the 12th Five Year Plan should see an investment of Rs. 2.2 lakh crore, including a substantial contribution from the private sector, M.K. Bhan, Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, told presspersons on Sunday. The Science Advisory Council placed before the Prime Minister several recommendations to promote excellence in science, said C.N.R. Rao, chairman of the council. Among the recommendations is the establishment of 200 centres of excellence in science, he added. The council recommended performance-based grants to institutions and universities and also proposed creating links between the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, and colleges. Major grants for research in the areas of energy, health, agriculture and environment were proposed.

Large Hadron Collider Finds New Variant of Particle The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), famously engaged in the quest for the Higgs boson, has turned up a heavier variant of a sub-atomic particle first discovered a quarter-century ago, scientists reported. Newcomer The newcomer is called Chi-b(3P), which was uncovered in the debris from colliding protons, 177


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Current Affairs according to research published in the open-access online journal arxiv. Like the elusive Higgs and the photon, it is a boson, meaning it is a particle that carries force. But while the Higgs is not believed to be made of smaller particles, the Chi-b(3) comprises two relatively heavy particles, the beauty quark and its anti-quark. They are bonded by the so-called “strong” force which also causes the atomic nucleus to stick together. The Chi-b(3P) is a heavier version of a particle that was first observed around 25 years ago. “The Chi-b(3P) is a particle that was predicted by many theorists, but was not observed at previous experiments,” said James Walder, a British physicist quoted by the University of Birmingham in a press release. Described by some as the world’s largest machine, the LHC is located in a 27-km ring-shaped tunnel near Geneva that straddles the Franco-Swiss border up to 580 feet below ground. Streams of protons are fired in opposite, but parallel, directions in the tunnel. Powerful Magnets The beams are then bent by powerful magnets so that some of the protons collide in four giant labs, which are lined with detectors to record the subatomic debris that results. On December 13, physicists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said they had narrowed the search for the Higgs — the so-called “God particle” that may confer mass. The theory behind the Higgs is that mass does not derive from particles themselves. Instead, it comes from a boson that interacts strongly with some particles but less, if at all, with others. Finding the Chi-b(3P) is a further test of the powers of the LHC, which became the world’s biggest particle collider when it was completed in 2008.

New Telecom Network for Government soon India’s vulnerability to spying activities by unfriendly nations in the Internet era has forced the Government to chalk out a Rs.450-crore plan to develop and deploy a pan-India secure network and network-based services such as e-mail and Internettelephony, thus providing a foolproof infrastructure for telecom and Internet communication exclusively for government use. The government does not want any official


communication on the Internet to travel outside the country and wants all such traffic to be routed through the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), a government-supported not-for-profit organisation that facilitates exchange of domestic Internet traffic. “Many email and Voice over Internet Protocol users in India rely on services of foreign origin ... communication made through these services can be accessed by the government of other countries, where the servers for providing these services are hosted, by invoking the provisions of their laws,” says the latest report of the Department of Telecommunications, prepared by the working group on Telecom for the 12th Five Year Plan (201217). The second of two NASA lunar probes — on a mission to study the Moon’s inner core so scientists can better understand the origins of planets — went into orbit as planned, said the U.S. space agency. The second Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL-B) began orbiting the Moon at about 2243 GMT, according to officials at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

250 MW CFBC Boiler to go on Stream at NLC this Month Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) will commission its first unit of 250 MW lignite-powered CFBC (circulating fluidised bed combustion) boiler at Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) complex in Tamil Nadu. The second unit will become operational during April-May, said A. V. Krishnan, Executive Director, BHEL, Tiruchi Complex, where the technology for CFBC boilers operated with noncoal fuel options such as lignite, bagasse and straw was developed. Mr. Krishnan hoped that lignite-fired boilers of 500 MW capacity could be developed by 2017-20. Unlike in the case of coal that is powdered, pulverised and then burnt in furnace, the CFBC boilers have the advantage of fuel flexibility. After supplying 2 x 125 MW CFBC boilers for Surat lignite power project (SLPP) through technical collaboration with Germany-based AE&E Lentjes, BHEL installed on its own two other boilers of 125 MW capacity each for NLC’s mine at Barsingsar in Rajastan.

Now, Hydrogen-driven Three-wheelers The world got its first fleet of hydrogen-fuelled three-wheelers when seven vehicles were unveiled 178


Current Affairs News for UPSC, IAS, Govt Exams: http://upscportal.com/civilservices/current-affairs Science & Technology Current at the ongoing Auto Expo 2012. Called ‘HyAlfa’, the three-wheeler is almost a zero-emission vehicle while its fuel consumption is substantially lower as compared to gasoline with 1 kg of hydrogen giving around 80 km mileage. The three-wheelers have beendevelopedunder a project, DelHy 3W, of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)’s International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies (UNIDO-ICHET) in association with Mahindra & Mahindra and IIT-Delhi, besides being supported by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

Grocer-archaeologist Discovers Gupta-era Temple Near Bundi An amateur archaeologist has discovered the remains of a temple supposed to have been built in the 5th Century A.D. during the Gupta period, when the concept of installing statues of deities in temples was introduced, in dense forests 35 km away from Bundi district town in Rajasthan. The temple has a ‘Shivalingam’ with the face of Lord Shiva engraved on it.

Telecom Licences will be Delinked from Spectrum Even as the telecom industry eagerly awaits the government’s decision on spectrum pricing, Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday announced major contours on spectrum management and licensing framework, which includes allowing operators to hold more spectrum, liberalising mergers and acquisitions, and a uniform licence fee regime. To be a major component of the proposed National Telecom Policy 2011, the new guidelines say all future licences will be ‘Unified Licences’ that will be delinked from spectrum allocation, while all existing telecom licences will be migrated to the new regime. The new guidelines also say the licence fee and spectrum usage charges payable by each such licensee will be on actual AGR, subject to a minimum presumptive AGR. This minimum figure would be reviewed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India every year. Mr. Sibal also said the prescribed limit on spectrum assigned to a service provider will be 2x8 MHz (paired spectrum) for GSM technology for all service areas other than Delhi and Mumbai where it will be 2x10 MHz (paired


spectrum). The current prescribed limit is 2x6.2 MHz of GSM spectrum as per licence norms.

New Family of Limbless Amphibians Found Scientists have discovered a new family of limbless amphibians from northeast India with their ancient lineage traced to eastern and western parts of Africa, a relationship preserved from the time the southern continents broke up more than 150 million years ago. Kerala-born Delhi University scientist S.D. Biju and co-researchers from India and Europe have reported their discovery in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. They have named the new family as Chikilidae and the new genus as Chikila, deriving the name from the Northeast Indian tribal language of Garo. Until this discovery, there were only nine known families of legless amphibians, also called caecilians, found across the wet tropical regions of Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, parts of East and West Africa, the Seychelles and northern and eastern parts of South America. From morphological and DNA analyses, the researchers show that the new family had evolved independent of other species of caecilians starting from the time of the dinosaurs. Its closest relatives now live in Africa.

anel Recommends Elimination of Railway Level Crossings The elimination of all level crossings from the railway landscape within the next five years as a measure of avoiding accidents and deaths is one of the key recommendations of the High Level Safety Review Committee that recently submitted its report to the Ministry of Railways. In its report, the Anil Kakodkar committee, argued that such a step would “not only eliminate the accidents at level crossings which account for 65 per cent of total deaths due to train accidents but will also improve the line capacity as trains get held up at busy LC gates. It will also save operation and maintenance costs incurred in the gates.” The Kakodkar committee’s analysis of data for the last five years showed that in the Indian Railway system spread across 64,000 route kilometres, derailments accounted for nearly half the total accidents followed by accidents at unmanned level crossing gates (36 per cent). Level crossing incidents contributed to 59 per cent of the deaths and 42 per cent of casualties. 179



Salt-loving wheat Could Ease Food Crisis Plant scientists said they had bred a strain of wheat that thrives in saline soils, boosting the quest to feed Earth’s growing population at a time of water stress and climate change. Durum wheat with a saltloving gene had yields which were up to 25 per cent greater than ordinary counterparts, according to trials carried out in highly saline fields. The gene, called TmHKT1;5-A, helps remove sodium from the water that is transported from the plant’s roots to the leaves, said a research team led by Matthew Gilliham of the University of Adelaide, southern Australia. Spotted in a scan of ancestral wheat strains, TmHKT1;5-A was inserted into a commercial strain by traditional cross-breeding, not through genetic engineering, which is contested in many countries. Durum wheat — Triticum turgidum — is used for making pasta, bulgur and couscous. It is more salt-sensitive than bread wheat ( Triticum aestivum ). By some estimates, world food requirements will soar by 70 per cent by 2050 as the planet’s population rises from seven billion

today to nine billion. The challenge will be made even tougher by the impact of climate change on rainfall patterns. Salinity is already a bad problem in arid and semi-arid developing countries where soils are naturally salty or irrigation water has a high level of salt.

Neutrino Observatory Work to begin in April The country’s first underground experimental laboratory spread over 26 hectares, which will detect and study neutrinos, the smallest particles known to humans, will come up at Pottipuram village in Bodi West Hills. The huge project is being undertaken jointly by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology with the participation of 25 leading research institutions in the country. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests accorded clearance in October 2010 for the INO project which will have an underground experimental facility to study neutrinos, which are elusive and fundamental particles of nature.

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