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GS Paper: GS3-16.Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology

  • [pib] ARI-516 Grape Variety

     

    Pune’s Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), an autonomous institute of the DST has developed a hybrid variety of grapes which is resistant to fungal diseases, high yielding and has excellent juice quality.

    ARI-516

    • The hybrid variety ARI-516 has been developed by interbreeding of two species from the same genus — Catawba variety of Vitis labrusca and Beauty seedless variety of Vitis vinifera.
    • It is a result of collaboration between Maharashtra Association for the Cultivation of Science (MACS) and ARCI and can benefit farmers, the processing industry and consumers.
    • This variety of grapes is resistant to fungal diseases, high yielding and has excellent juice quality.
    • The fungal resistance of ARI-516 has been derived from Catawba, which is an American grape variety.

    Commercial benefits

    • It is also suitable for preparation of juice, raisin, jam and red wine and farmers are enthusiastically adopting the variety.
    • It has superior quality fruits and higher yield per unit area.
    • An early ripening hybrid, it matures in 110 – 120 days after pruning.
    • Being moderately resistant to a majority of fungal diseases, its cost of production is lower.

    Back2Basics

    Grape production in India

    • India ranks twelfth in the world in terms of grape production.
    • About 78% of grape production in India is utilized for consumption, 17-20 % for raisin production, 1.5 % for wine and 0.5 % for juice.
    • Maharashtra leads in the production of grapes in India with a share of 81.22 %. A negligible share of grapes is used for juice production.
    • A majority of farmers in Maharashtra cultivate ‘Thompson seedless’ and its clones for table purpose or raisin making.

  • What is the ‘Raman effect’?

     

     

    Yesterday, February 28th was celebrated as National Science Day. In 1986, the Govt. of India designated this Day, to commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the “Raman effect”.

    CV Raman

    • Raman conducted his Nobel-prize winning research at IACS, Calcutta.
    • While he was educated entirely in India, Raman travelled to London for the first time in 1921, where his reputation in the study of optics and acoustics was known to physicists such as JJ Thomson and Lord Rutherford.
    • The Raman Effect won scientist Sir CV Raman the Nobel Prize for physics in 1930.
    • It was also designated as an International Historic Chemical Landmark jointly by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS).
    • His speciality was the study of vibrations and sounds of stringed instruments such as the Indian veena and tambura, and Indian percussion instruments such as the tabla and mridangam.

    The Raman Effect

    • In 1928, Raman discovered that when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour.
    • While Raman was returning from London in a 15-day voyage, he started thinking about the colour of the deep blue Mediterranean.
    • He wasn’t convinced by the explanation that the colour of the sea was blue due to the reflection of the sky.
    • As the ship docked in Bombay, he sent a letter to the editor of the journal Nature, in which he penned down his thoughts on this.
    • Subsequently, Raman was able to show that the blue colour of the water was due to the scattering of the sunlight by water molecules.
    • By this time he was obsessed with the phenomenon of light scattering.

    Observing the effect

    • The Raman Effect is when the change in the energy of the light is affected by the vibrations of the molecule or material under observation, leading to a change in its wavelength.
    • Significantly, it notes that the Raman effect is “very weak” — this is because when the object in question is small (smaller than a few nanometres), the light will pass through it undisturbed.
    • But a few times in a billion, light waves may interact with the particle. This could also explain why it was not discovered before.
    • In general, when light interacts with an object, it can either be reflected, refracted or transmitted.
    • One of the things that scientists look at when light is scattered is if the particle it interacts with is able to change its energy.

    Applications

    • Raman spectroscopy is used in many varied fields – in fact, any application where non-destructive, microscopic, chemical analysis and imaging is required.
    • Whether the goal is qualitative or quantitative data, Raman analysis can provide key information easily and quickly.
    • It can be used to rapidly characterize the chemical composition and structure of a sample, whether solid, liquid, gas, gel, slurry or powder.

  • India’s Scientific Expedition to the Southern Ocean

     

    A South African oceanographic research vessel SA Agulhas set off from Port Louise in Mauritius, on a two-month Indian Scientific Expedition to the Southern Ocean 2020. Recently the vessel was at Prydz Bay, in the coastal waters of “Bharati”, India’s third station in Antarctica.

    India’s polar mission

    • This is the 11th expedition of an Indian mission to the Southern Ocean, or Antarctic Ocean.
    • The first mission took place between January and March 2004.

    About the Southern Ocean expedition

    • The researchers from IITM Pune are collecting air and water samples from around 60 stations along the cruise track.
    • These will give valuable information on the state of the ocean and atmosphere in this remote environment and will help to understand its impacts on the climate.
    • A key objective of the mission is to quantify changes that are occurring and the impact of these changes on large-scale weather phenomenon, like the Indian monsoon, through tele-connection.

    Why study Southern Ocean?

    • We know that carbon dioxide is getting emitted into the atmosphere, and through atmospheric circulation goes to the Antarctic and Polar Regions.
    • Since the temperature is very low there, these gases are getting absorbed and converted into dissolved inorganic carbon or organic carbon, and through water masses and circulation it is coming back to tropical regions.
    • All oceans around the world are connected through the Southern Ocean, which acts as a transport agent for things like heat across all these oceans.
    • The conveyor belt that circulates heat around the world is connected through the Southern Ocean and can have a large impact on how climate is going to change due to anthropogenic forces.

    Core projects of the expedition

    • Study hydrodynamics and biogeochemistry of the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean; involves sampling seawater at different depths. This will help understand the formation of Antarctic bottom water.
    • Observations of trace gases in the atmosphere, such as halogens and dimethyl sulphur from the ocean to the atmosphere. This will help improve parameterizations that are used in global models.
    • Study of organisms called coccolithophores that have existed in the oceans for several million years; their concentrations in sediments will create a picture of past climate
    • Investigate atmospheric aerosols and their optical and radiative properties. Continuous measurements will quantify the impact on Earth’s climate.
    • Study the Southern Ocean’s impact on Indian monsoons. Look for signs in a sediment core taken from the bottom of the ocean
    • Dynamics of the food web in the Southern Ocean; important for safeguarding catch and planning sustainable fishing

  • TrueNat

    The WHO has endorsed TrueNat, an Indian indigenous molecular diagnostic tool for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis.

    TrueNat

    • The TrueNat TB test is a new molecular test that can diagnosis TB in one hour as well as testing for resistance to the drug rifampicin.
    • The TrueNat MTB and MTB Plus assays also show comparable accuracy to the TB-LAMP assay as replacement tests for sputum smear microscopy.
    • The data for TrueNat MTB-Rif shows similar accuracy to WHO-approved commercial line probe assays.
    • It is developed by the Goa-based Molbio Diagnostics.
    • The company was provided with technical assistance and resources by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) to help commercialise Truenat.
    • ICMR had assessed and validated the diagnostic tool. It has high diagnostic accuracy as initial test to diagnose TB.
    • It will be used as an initial test thus replacing sputum smear microscopy.