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GS Paper: GS3-15.Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life.

  • [pib] Amendment to the Export Policy of APIs and formulations made from these APIs

    The Government has made amendments in the export policy and restricted export of specified APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) and formulations made from these APIs.

    Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)

    • All drugs are made up of two core components: the API, which is the central ingredient, and the excipients, the substances other than the drug that helps deliver the medication to your system.
    • The API is the part of any drug that produces its effects.
    • Excipients are chemically inactive substances, such as lactose or mineral oil.
    • The quality of APIs has a significant effect on the efficacy and safety of medications.

    The notification covers the following APIs and formulations made from these APIs:

    • Paracetamol
    • Tinidazole
    • Metronidazole
    • Acyclovir
    • Vitamin B1
    • Vitamin B6
    • Vitamin B12
    • Progesterone
    • Chloramphenicol
    • Erythromycin Salts
    • Neomycin
    • Clindamycin Salts
    • Ornidazole

  • Svalbard Global Seed Vault

     

    The Svalbard Global Seed Vault — referred to as the earth’s ‘doomsday vault’ — now contains about 1.05 million seeds.

    Global Seed Vault

    • The vault — in the island of Spitsbergen, midway between Norway and the North Pole — opened in 2008 and preserves seeds for several food varieties.
    • The aim of the vault is to preserve a vast variety of crop seeds in the case of a doomsday event, calamity, climate change or national emergency.
    • The vault is artificially cooled at temperatures of minus 18 degrees Celsius.
    • The low temperature and limited access to oxygen will ensure low metabolic activity and delay seed ageing.
    • The permafrost surrounding the facility will help maintain the low temperature of the seeds if the electricity supply fails.

    Access to seeds

    • Vault seed samples are copies of samples stored in the depositing genebanks.
    • Researchers, plant breeders, and other groups wishing to access seed samples cannot do so through the seed vault; they must instead request samples from the depositing genebanks.
    • The samples stored in the genebanks will, in most cases, be accessible in accordance with the terms and conditions of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, approved by 118 countries or parties.

  • In news: Yaravirus

    In a lake in Brazil, researchers have discovered a virus that they find unusual and intriguing.

    Yaravirus

    • The Yaravirus infects amoeba and has genes that have not been described before, something that could challenge how DNA viruses are classified.
    • It has a puzzling origin and phylogeny (evolutionary relationship).
    • Because of the Yaravirus’s small size, it was unlike other viruses that infect amoeba and they named it as a tribute to Yara, the “mother of waters” in the mythological stories of the Tupi-Guarani indigenous tribes.
    • The virus does not infect human cells, according to the researchers.

  • RO-based water filtration systems

    • The Union Environment Ministry has issued a draft notification that seeks to regulate membrane-based water filtration systems in areas where the source of water meets drinking water norms of the Bureau of Indian Standards.
    • This primarily affects reverse osmosis (RO)-based water filtration systems and the rules, at least in letter, effectively prohibit homes from installing domestic RO systems.

    What is reverse osmosis (RO)?

    • RO was originally a technology devised to desalinate sea water. The idea exploits the principle of osmosis.
    • Take a tube, twist it into a ‘U’-shape and insert a semi-permeable membrane (a material with very small holes that will allow only certain molecules to filter through) at the point where the tube curves.
    • Fill half the tube with salt water and the other with freshwater. Over time, fresh water will cross over into the salty arm until the proportion of salt and water in both arms is the same.
    • This is due to osmotic pressure which dilutes a region with a higher concentration of solute (in this case, the salt).
    • It would need to create some external pressure that will counter the osmotic pressure and suck all the water from the salty arm into the freshwater arm while leaving the salt behind. This is the essential principle of an RO system.
    • To create external pressure, RO relies on a pump and electric motors. It uses “activated carbon” components, such as charcoal and carbon black that can filter out contaminants as well as organic substances such as bacteria.
    • It all depends on the filtering material and the number of filters that incoming tap water must pass through.
    • However, it is possible to deploy a wide array of membranes and multiple stages of filters to filter a wide variety of solutes — arsenic, fluoride, hexavalent chromium, nitrates, bacteria — that come mixed in water.

    What is the problem with RO?

    • In making tap water pass through multiple stages of cleaning, RO systems end up wasting a lot of water.
    • Anywhere between three-five times more water is wasted by them than they produce and given the challenges that cities and government face in providing potable water.
    • It is as part of this legal dispute, which began in March 2019 that led the Environment Ministry to move to regulate RO systems.
    • Another concern with RO is that it filters out calcium, zinc, magnesium, which are essential salts needed by the body; drinking such water over time could be harmful.
    • However, many manufacturers claim to overcome this challenge by “post-treatment”.
    • This increases costs and reduces the incentive for public-funded water distribution systems to supply clean water to the vast majority of the country who can ill-afford such systems.
    • The average RO system only aims to reduce Total Dissolved Solids, ensure water is odourless and has a pH from 6.5-8.5.
    • The National Institute of Virology (NIV) claimed that most filtration methods did not eliminate Hepatitis E virus. A combination of filtration systems can eliminate most contaminants.

    How is the quality of piped water in the country?

    • Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the Prime Minister has committed to provide tap water to the entire country by 2024. However, studies show that the existing quality of piped water is deficient in much of India.
    • Last year, the Department of Consumer Affairs undertook a study through the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on the quality of piped drinking water being supplied in the country.
    • Most samples drawn from various places did not comply with the BIS’s requirements.

  • What is Fermentophone?

     

    Fermentation, the chemical breakdown of a substance by microorganisms such as bacteria or yeasts, results in some of the most delicious foods and beverages, including cheese, chocolate and wine.  Now, research has shown it can result in music, too.

    Fermentophone

    • The chemical processes of fermentation can be used to create spontaneous tunes.
    • Researchers has built multiple art exhibits called Fermentophone to showcase how fermentation can make music.
    • First, different fruits and veggies are placed in glass jars and fermented.
    • As the fermentation kicks off, the yeast — or bacteria — present in the food chows down on the foods’ sugars, which results in the release of carbon dioxide bubbles.
    • The release of these bubbles creates a tiny sound, which is picked up by underwater microphones.
    • A computer processes the sounds and, with the help of algorithms plugged in, electronic music is created.

  • [op-ed snap] Cybersecurity a critical challenge for India’s digital payments ecosys

    Context

    Digital payments in India are witnessing consistent growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.7%.

    Growth potential and challenges involved in digital payments

    • Expected growth in mobile wallet payment: The mobile wallet market is expected to continuously grow at a CAGR of 52.2% by volume between 2019-23, according to a recent report by KPMG.
      • This digital explosion can be seen in the accelerating rise in the download and use of electronic wallets as well as an unprecedented increase in digital transactions/payments.
      • UPI/IMPS use growth: Payment systems such as UPI/IMPS are likely to register average annualised growth of over 100%, according to RBI’s 2021 vision document.
    • Challenge of Cybersecurity: Cybersecurity is one of the most critical challenges faced by stakeholders of the digital payment ecosystem.
      • Types of risks involved: With more and more users preferring digital payments, the chances of getting exposed to cybersecurity risks such as-
      • Online fraud
      • Information theft.
      • Malware or virus attacks are also increasing.
      • Digital payment frauds account for about half of all bank frauds in India.

    Steps taken by the RBI

    • Guidelines issued: In view of risks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also issued some guidelines as security and risk mitigation measures for digital payments.
      • It has also issued guidelines that limit the liability of customers on unauthorised electronic banking transactions
    • Steps taken: The central bank has taken steps for securing card transactions, internet banking, electronic payments, ATM transactions, and prepaid payment instruments (PPIs).

    Securing the fintech revolution

    • Fraudsters building advanced technologies: The changing nature of cybersecurity attacks such as-
      • Web application attack.
      • Ransomware.
      • Reconnaissance.
      • The DDoS attack clearly establishes cyber-risk as a new reality.
    • What needs to be done to secure the fintech revolution?
      • A robust regulatory framework.
      • An effective customer redressal framework.
      • Foolproof security measures to enable confidence and trust.
      • Incentives for larger participation and benefits similar to cash transactions- are some measures that can help ensure long-term success for digital payments.
    • Leveraging technology: Technology can be leveraged for making popular methods of cashless payments secure.
      • Biometric authentication-enabled cards can provide a greater layer of security by enabling replacement of the traditional PIN.
      • Through biometric authentication, consumers can authenticate transactions by placing their finger on a fingerprint sensor embedded in the card.
      • Ensuring security: Safety is ensured as the consumer’s fingerprint is stored only in the secure chip within the card and the same chip is used to match the scanned fingerprint with the stored one.
      • The biggest advantage: The biggest advantage is that the bank or merchant cannot access the consumer’s biometric data, which also counters potential privacy concerns.

    Conclusion

    To reap the advantages of the promising fintech revolution steps must be taken to secure the digital environment.

     

     

     

  • Polycrack Technology

     

    Indian Railways has put in place the country’s first Waste to Energy plant in Mancheswar Carriage Repair Workshop which falls under East Coast Railway. It uses a patented technology called POLYCRACK, is first-of-its-kind in Indian Railways and fourth in India.

    Polycrack Technology

    • It is world’s first patented heterogeneous catalytic process which converts multiple feed stocks into hydrocarbon liquid fuels, gas, carbon and water.
    • The process is a closed-loop system and does not emit any hazardous pollutants into the atmosphere.

    Feeders

    • Polycrack Plant can be fed with all types of plastic, petroleum sludge, un-segregated MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) with moisture up to 50%, e–waste, automobile fluff, organic waste including bamboo, garden waste etc., and Jatropha fruit and palm bunch.

    How it works?

    • The process is a closed-loop system and does not emit any hazardous pollutants into the atmosphere.
    • The combustible, non-condensed gases are re-used for providing energy to the entire system and thus, the only emission comes from the combustion of gaseous fuels.
    • The emissions from the combustion are found to be much less than prescribed environmental norms.
    • This process will produce energy in the form of Light Diesel Oil which is used to light furnaces.

    Advantages of Polycrack

    Polycrack has the following advantages over the conventional approach of treating solid waste:

    • Pre-segregation of waste is not required to reform the waste. Waste as collected can be directly fed into Polycrack.
    • It has high tolerance to moisture hence drying of waste is not required.
    • Waste is processed and reformed within 24 hours.
    • It is an enclosed unit hence the working environment is dust free.
    • Excellent air quality surrounding the plant.
    • Biological decomposition is not allowed as the Waste is treated as it is received.
    • The foot print of the plant is small hence the area required for installing the plant is less when compared with conventional method of processing.
    • All constituents are converted into valuable energy thereby making it Zero Discharge Process.
    • Gas generated in the process is re-used to provide energy to the system thereby making it self-reliant and also bring down the operating cost.
    • There is no atmospheric emission during the process unlike other conventional methods except for combustion gases which have pollutants less than the prescribed norms the world over.
    • Operates around 450 degrees, making it a low temperature process when compared with other options.
    • Safe and efficient system with built-in safety features enables even an unskilled user to operate the machine with ease.
    • Low capital cost and low operating cost.
    • Fully automated system requires minimum man power.

  • IVF of White Rhinos

    Researchers had created another embryo — the third — of the nearly extinct northern white rhino. This is seen as a remarkable success in an ongoing global mission to keep the species from going extinct.

    What is IVF?

    • IVF is a type of assisted reproductive technology used for infertility treatment and gestational surrogacy.
    • A fertilised egg may be implanted into a surrogate’s uterus, and the resulting child is genetically unrelated to the surrogate.
    • Some countries have banned or otherwise regulate the availability of IVF treatment, giving rise to fertility tourism.
    • Restrictions on the availability of IVF include costs and age, in order for a woman to carry a healthy pregnancy to term.
    • IVF is generally not used until less invasive or expensive options have failed or been determined unlikely to work.

    IVF process

    • In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilization where an egg is combined with sperm outside the body, in vitro (“in glass”).
    • The process involves monitoring and stimulating a female ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) from the female ovaries and letting sperm fertilise them in a liquid in a laboratory.
    • After the fertilised egg (zygote) undergoes embryo culture for 2–6 days, it is implanted in the same or another female uterus, with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy.

    Types of Rhinos

    • The northern white is one of the two subspecies of the white (or square-lipped) rhinoceros, which once roamed several African countries south of the Sahara.
    • The other subspecies, the southern white is, by contrast, the most numerous subspecies of rhino, and is found primarily in South Africa.
    • There is also the black (or hook-lipped) rhinoceros in Africa, which too, is fighting for survival, and at least three of whose subspecies are already extinct.
    • The Indian rhinoceros is different from its African cousins, most prominently in that it has only one horn.
    • There is also a Javan rhino, which too, has one horn, and a Sumatran rhino which, like the African rhinos, has two horns.

  • [op-ed of the day] The age of ubiquitous drones and the challenges overhead

    Context

    Increasing the use of drones in warfare and other areas has brought into focus the potential the use of drones hold and the other issues related to its misuse.

    Recent events featuring drones

    • A drone was used by the U.S. to fire the missile at Qassem Soleimani to assassinate him.
    • A few days before that, less-lethal drones monitored crowds of student protesters rocking India.

    A potential area of use of drones

    • Military and Policing: Drones are largely used for military or policing purposes, but they also have other uses.
    • Recreation and Sports: They are used for recreation and sports. The Chinese company DJI dominates this space.
    • Logistics: Logistics is another use, with Amazon developing last-mile drone delivery.
    • At scale, this delivery model can save money, energy and time.
    • Domino’s extended this logic to deliver its first pizza by drone in New Zealand and is experimenting with scaling this model up in many markets.
    • Botswana has had some successful trials where drones have delivered blood and life-saving drugs to villages out in the wilderness.
    • Agriculture: A startup called Terraview uses drones with advanced image processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality to increase the productivity of vineyards.
    • A drone can be used to measure the amount of grain that’s piled up after harvest.
    • Mining Output: Tata Steel has used drones quite effectively to measure mining output.
    • Access the inaccessible places: Drones can go where people cannot.
    • So, inspection and repair at remote wind farms on an island, or pipelines in the remote tundra, or equipment in a rainforest can be done more cheaply and precisely.
    • Drone surveillance is now widely used by the insurance industry in the aftermath of floods or pest inspections.
    • They can provide organizations a 360-degree view of the status of any construction project and its assets.
    • Explosive detection and defusing: In many places, it is just safer to send a drone, such as while using explosives in deep mines or defusing suspected bombs.
    • Wildlife protection and survey: drones are used to survey wildlife and detect poaching in the jungles of Africa.

    Drones as commodity

    • Drones will soon become a hardware commodity, much like personal computers.
    • It will be the software loaded on it that will be the real force-multiplier.
    • Industry 4.0 revolution: Business like “drones-as-a-service” will emerge, dramatically reducing the time taken for tasks and serving as a vital tool in the Industry 4.0 revolution.

    A potent tool for Swarm-attack by military

    • Perhaps the most fascinating developments will occur where drones originated, in
    • Drones will mutate into swarms, where multiple, intelligent, small drones act as one vast network, much like a swarm of birds or locusts.
    • Advanced militaries have drone swarms under trial that could revolutionize future conflicts.
    • These swarms could overwhelm enemy sensors with sheer numbers and precisely target enemy soldiers and assets using data fed into them.
    • They will be difficult to shoot down as there will be hundreds of small flying objects rather than one big ballistic missile.
    • The swarm will use real-time ground data to organize itself and operate in concert to achieve its goal.

    Issues with drones

    • It will be us humans who will decide whether we use drones for beneficial or malevolent ends.
    • National Security Issues: Drones have demonstrated the potentials for their threat to the security of a country. Drones are operated remotely and can strike where it want it to strike. Raising serious security issues.
    • Terrorism: Drones have been used by various terrorist organisations like ISIS in Syria and Iraq to hit their targets.
    • Aviation safety: Drones flying too close to commercial aircraft has called for regulations.
    • Privacy: Drones have been used by the paparazzi to take the images of individuals breaching their privacy.

    Conclusion

    Drones can indeed be a fantastic tool for good projects, from helping save the planet to identifying and nabbing criminals, and preventing the loss of human life. However, for that, we will have to change the DNA that they were born with, as lethal weapons of war. Otherwise, they will remain anonymous killers, wreaking death and destruction as they hover innocuously above.

     

  • Video based Customer Identification Process (V-CIP)

    The RBI has amended the KYC norms allowing banks and other lending institutions regulated by it to use Video-based Customer Identification Process (V-CIP), a move which will help them, onboard customers, remotely.

    V-CIP

    • The V-CIP will be consent-based, will make it easier for banks and other regulated entities to adhere to the RBI’s KYC norms by leveraging the digital technology.
    • The regulated entities will have to ensure that the video recording is stored in a safe and secure manner and bears the date and time stamp.
    • As per the circular, the reporting entity should capture a clear image of PAN card to be displayed by the customer during the process, except in cases where e-PAN is provided by the customer.
    • The PAN details should be verified from the database of the issuing authority.
    • Live location of the customer (Geotagging) shall be captured to ensure that customer is physically present in India.