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

  • 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.