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GS Paper: GS3

  • FELUDA test for Covid-19

    Union Health Ministry will soon roll out the FELUDA paper strip test for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.What is Cas9 protein that is often mentioned in news?

    (a) A molecular scissors used in targeted gene editing

    (b) A biosensor used in the accurate detection of pathogens in patients

    (c) A gene that makes plants pest-resistant

    (d) A herbicidal substance synthesized in genetically modified crops

    FELUDA test

    • FELUDA is the acronym for FNCAS9 Editor Linked Uniform Detection Assay.
    • It uses indigenously developed CRISPR gene-editing technology to identify and target the genetic material of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
    • According to CSIR, the test matches accuracy levels of RT-PCR tests, considered the gold standard in the diagnosis of Covid-19, has a quicker turnaround time and requires less expensive equipment.
    • It is also the world’s first diagnostic test to deploy a specially adapted Cas9 protein to successfully detect the virus.

    How does it work?

    • The Feluda test is similar to a pregnancy test strip that will just change colour upon detection of the virus and can be used in a simple pathological lab.
    • The Cas9 protein is bar-coded to interact with the SARS-CoV2 sequence in the patient’s genetic material.
    • The Cas9-SARS-CoV2 complex is then put on the paper strip, where using two lines (one control, one test) makes it possible to determine if the test sample was infected.

    Back2Basics: CRISPR technology

    • CRISPR is a short form for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.
    • It is a gene-editing technology and finds its use in correcting genetic defects and treating and preventing the spread of diseases.
    • The technology can detect specific sequences of DNA within a gene and uses an enzyme functioning as molecular scissors to snip it.
    • It also allows researchers to easily alter DNA sequences and modify gene function.
    • Moreover, the technology can also be configured for detection of multiple other pathogens in the future.

  • 8 Indian beaches accorded ‘Blue Flag’ tag

    Eight Indian beaches have got an International Blue Flag Certification, said Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

    Note the beaches and their respective states. They can be asked in the ”match the pairs” type questions.

    Citation needed: *As of now, there are 13 Blue flag awarded beaches in India a/c to wikipedia. But Blue Flag website would provide exact figures (which yet to update the official numbers).

    Which are these beaches?

    1. Shivrajpur (Dwarka-Gujarat)
    2. Ghoghla (Diu)
    3. Kasarkod [NOT Kasargod which is in Kerala] and Padubidri (Karnataka)
    4. Kappad (Kerala)
    5. Rushikonda (AP)
    6. Golden Beach (Odisha) and
    7. Radhanagar (A&N Islands)

    Blue Flag Beaches

    • The ‘Blue Flag’ beach is an ‘eco-tourism model’ and marks out beaches as providing tourists and beachgoers clean and hygienic bathing water, facilities/amenities, a safe and healthy environment, and sustainable development of the area.
    • The certification is accorded by the Denmark-based Foundation for Environment Education.
    • It started in France in 1985 and has been implemented in Europe since 1987, and in areas outside Europe since 2001 when South Africa joined.
    • It has 33 stringent criteria under four major heads for the beaches, that is, (i) Environmental Education and Information (ii) Bathing Water Quality (iii) Environment Management and Conservation and (iv) Safety and Services.

  • Skal International Asia Area (SIAA)

    The UT of Jammu and Kashmir has won the bid to host the 50th annual Skal International Asia Area (SIAA) Congress in 2021 during the annual general meeting recently against four other cities.

    Note: Skal International is not an affiliate of the United Nations. This is where a prelims  question can pull a nerve.

    Skal International

    • Skal International is a professional organization of tourism leaders around the world, promoting global tourism and friendship.
    • It is a Spain-based tourism body with 15,000 members and 150 chapters across the world.
    • The word Skal comes from Scandinavia and has a long tradition. The “Skal” is a bowl containing a welcome drink that is offered to visitors when entering a home.
    • Its members, the industry’s managers and executives meet at local, national, regional and international levels to discuss and pursue topics of common interest.
    • It is the only international group uniting all branches of the travel and tourism industry.

  • What is Raychaudhuri Equation?

    The Raychaudhuri Equation in General Relativity, derived by Raychaudhuri is in the spotlight after 2020 Physics Nobel was awarded to Penrose for throwing light on Black Holes.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The Raychaudhuri Equation is sometimes seen in news is related to:

    Artificial Intelligence/Cloud Computing/Quantum Mechanics/Space Sciences

    What is Raychaudhuri Equation?

    • Raychaudhuri (1923–2005) was an Indian physicist, known for his research in general relativity and cosmology.
    • In general relativity, the Raychaudhuri equation is a fundamental result describing the motion of nearby bits of matter.
    • It was discovered independently by the Indian physicist Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri and the Soviet physicist Lev Landau.
    • The equation offers a simple and general validation of our intuitive expectation that gravitation should be a universal attractive force between any two bits of mass-energy in general relativity, as it is in Newton’s theory of gravitation.

  • Species in news: Aenigmachanna Gollum

    Scientists have discovered a new family of bony fish from the Western Ghats and named it Aenigmachannidae.

    A stand-alone species being mentioned in the news for the first time (and that too from Southern India) find their way into the prelims. Make special note here. Usually, note the species and its habitat location (IUCN status if available), in the purview of a generic prelims question.

    Aenigmachannidae

    • Aenigmachanna Gollum has a surprisingly large number of primitive characters, and detailed molecular phylogenetic analyses including of its Mitochondrial DNA suggested an ancient separation from Channidae.
    • Many such species were earlier found in the aquifers of Kerala.
    • Many of these species are blind, pigment-less, and have peculiar morphological characters that are otherwise not seen in species occurring in surface waters.

    Significance of the discovery

    • The presence of two unique endemic families of freshwater fish in a small region like Kerala is unparalleled and indicates the exceptional diversity and endemicity of fishes in this part of the world.
    • The members of Aenigmachannidae are “living fossils” and comprise an ancient Gondwanan lineage that survived the break-up of the supercontinent and the northward drift of the Indian subcontinent.

  • [pib] Bharatmala Pariyojana

    A total of 322 projects in a length of 12,413 km have been awarded under Bharatmala Pariyojana. Further, 2921 Km has been constructed under the Project till the date.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following pairs:

    National Highway: Cities connected

    1. NH 4: Chennai and Hyderabad
    2. NH 6: Mumbai and Kolkata
    3. NH 15: Ahmedabad and Jodhpur

    Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 3 only

    (c) 1, 2 and 3

    (d) None

    Bharatmala Pariyojana

    • It is a centrally-sponsored and funded the Road and Highways project.
    • It is an umbrella program for the highways sector that focuses on optimizing the efficiency of freight and passenger movement across the country by bridging critical infrastructure.
    • The total investment for 83,677 km committed new highways is estimated at ₹5.35 lakh crore making it the single largest outlay for a government road construction scheme.
    • It works for the development of Economic Corridors, Inter Corridors and Feeder Routes, National Corridor Efficiency Improvement, Border and International connectivity roads, Coastal and Port connectivity roads and Green-field expressways.
    • The ambitious umbrella programme has subsumed all existing Highway Projects including the flagship National Highways Development Project (NHDP), launched in 1998.

  • RBI shifts focus on bond market to transmit policy signals

    The article analyses the implications of the recently concluded MPC meeting and predicts the trends for the future.

    Highlights of the MPC meeting

    • In the October meeting of the monetary policy committee (MPC), repo rate were kept unchanged at 4%, with a continuation of an accommodative stance.
    • It chose to ignore elevated levels of CPI inflation as transitory and maintaining focus on supporting growth.
    • It appears that the MPC would maintain a status quo on rates through this fiscal year.
    • The scope for further easing is anyways limited to 0.50%, as any more easing may affect household financial savings and endanger financial stability.

    Ensuring the rate transmission

    • With unchanged repo rates, the focus of the liquidity measures announced by the RBI is to further improve transmission of previous rate cuts across a spectrum of market rates and other instruments.
    • The RBI Governor assured market participants that the large supply of government bonds in the second half along with a likely pick-up in credit demand, would be accommodated through open market purchases of government bonds.

    Reducing the cost of borrowing

    • The RBI may have to buy bonds worth ₹1,000 to 1,500 billion in these operations over 2HFY21 keeping pressure on yields [which affects interest rates].
    • In a related move, to reduce the cost of borrowings for state governments, the RBI for the first time will buy state government bonds, as a special case for this year.

    Other measures

    • The extension of enhanced Held to Maturity (HTM) limit of banks on their government bonds portfolio to March 2022.
    • A new on-tap targeted LTRO window was announced, for banks to borrow up to ₹1,000 billion from the RBI at a floating rate linked to the repo rate, and invest in corporate paper issued by specific sectors and to provide loans to them.
    • In effect, the aim of the central bank is to ensure that lower policy rates determined by the macro-economic fundamentals, are reflected in lower cost of borrowings for the Centre, states and corporates.

    Containing inflation

    • Inflation outlook for this fiscal and projections for next year indicate that CPI inflation would ease, from an average of 6.8% in Q2 to 4.5% in Q4 and 4.1% by Q4FY22.
    • Headline inflation is expected to fall, as supply conditions normalize with progressive unlocking and another year of bumper farm output helps pull down food inflation.
    • Higher fuel taxes and import duties are expected to provide an upward push though.
    • Effective supply management will therefore be crucial in controlling food inflation and ensuring that it does not turn persistent and feeds into non-food inflation.

    Conclusion

    • The role of monetary policy in the is limited and the RBI focus will remain on improving transmission of policy signals through banking, bond and credit market channels.

    Back2Basics: LTRO

    • Long-Term Repo Operation (LTRO) was introduced by the Reserve Bank in February, 2020.
    • Through this policy, the central bank would provide liquidity support to commercial banks for a period of 1 to 3 years at the current repo rate, and would accept government securities as collateral in return.
    • This is in contrast to the other measures it was providing such as Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) and Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) which provide cash to banks for a period of 1 to 28 days only.

  • [pib] Calcium Nitrate and Boronated Calcium Nitrate

    Union Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers has launched an indigenous variety of fertilizers- ‘Calcium Nitrate’ & ‘Boronated Calcium Nitrate’.

    Try this PYQ:

    Why does the Government of India promote the use of ‘Neem-coated Urea’ in agriculture?

    (a) Release of Neem oil in the soil increases nitrogen fixation by the soil microorganisms

    (b) Neem coating slows down the rate of dissolution of urea in the soil

    (c) Nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas, is not at all released into atmosphere by crop fields

    (d) It is a combination of a weedicide and a fertilizer for particular crops

    What is Calcium Nitrate?

    • Calcium nitrate is used as a water-soluble fertilizer in agriculture. In addition, this product is also used in wastewater treatment and to increase the strength of cement concrete.
    • Last year, around 1.25 lakh metric tons (1,23,000 tons) of Calcium Nitrate was imported in the country.
    • Of this, 76% was imported from China and the rest from other countries like Norway and Israel.
    • These indigenous varieties will provide a quality product at a cheaper rate to the farmer community in the country than imported ones.

    Uses of Calcium nitrate

    • The fertilizer grade calcium nitrate is popular in the greenhouse and hydroponics. It is also used to control certain plant diseases.
    • Calcium nitrate is also used in wastewater pre-conditioning for odour emission prevention.

  • [pib] Bio-Pesticide Formulation using Verticillium Lecanii

    Indian researchers have successfully developed new Aqueous Suspension formulation technology of bio-pesticide based on entomopathogenic fungus Verticillium lecanii.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.Recently, there was a growing awareness in our country about the importance of Himalayan nettle (Girardinia diversifolia) because it is found to be a sustainable source of

    (a) anti-malarial drug

    (b) biodiesel

    (c) pulp for paper industry

    (d) textile fibre

    Verticillium lecanii

    • This bio-pesticide formulation has been found very effective in controlling various insects in seed spice crops (fenugreek, cumin, and coriander).
    • It has a good shelf life, safe to user & environment and it may be effectively used for controlling different agricultural insects especially in seed spice crops.
    • This bio-pesticide may be used as a safer alternative to chemical pesticides to minimize pesticide residue problem.
    • Besides, it may be used as a key input for crop protection from insects pest in organic agriculture and Integrated Pest Management.

  • Anti Radiation Missile: RudraM-I

    A New Generation Anti Radiation Missile (NGARM), RudraM-I, was successfully flight-tested by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.The RudraM-I recently seen in news is an:

    Ans: Anti-satellite missile/ Anti-radiation Missile/ Anti-tank mine/ Submarine Torpedo

    RudraM-I

    • RudraM-I is an anti-radiation missile can locate and target any radiation-emitting source like enemy radars, communication sites and other Radio Frequency (RF) emitting targets.
    • It is being developed by Defence Research Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, as the nodal agency.
    • It is a joint effort involving several DRDO labs, the IAF, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and several public and private sector enterprises.
    • This is the first indigenous anti-radiation missile of the country. It has a range of up to 200 km depending upon the launch conditions.
    • It can be launched from altitudes of 500 m to 15 km and speeds of 0.6 to 2 mach.
    • It can play a key role in neutralizing any jamming platforms of the enemy or take out radar stations thereby clearing a path for own fighters to carry out an offensive and also prevent own systems from being jammed.

    How does it work?

    • Anti-radiation missiles are designed to detect, track and neutralize the adversary’s radar, communication assets and other radio frequency sources, which are generally part of their air defence systems.
    • Such a missile’s navigation mechanism comprises an inertial navigation system — a computerised mechanism that uses changes in the object’s own position — coupled with GPS, which is satellite-based.
    • For guidance, it has a “passive homing head” — a system that can detect, classify and engage targets (radio frequency sources in this case) over a wide band of frequencies as programmed.
    • Once the RudraM missile locks on the target, it is capable of striking accurately even if the radiation source switches off in between.