đŸ’„Join UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (July Batch) + XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

Subject: Science and Technology

  • Statistics Day and P.C. Mahalanobis

    Statistics Day will be celebrated today on 29th June 2020 to popularize the use of Statistics in everyday life and sensitize the public as to how Statistics helps in shaping and framing policies.

    Try this question from CSP 2016:

    A recent movie titled The Man Who Knew Infinity is based on the biography of-

    (a) S. Ramanujan
    (b) S. Chandrasekhar
    (c) S. N. Bose
    (d) C. V. Raman

    Who was P.C. Mahalanobis?

    • Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (29 June 1893 – 28 June 1972) was an Indian scientist and statistician.
    • He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and for being one of the members of the first Planning Commission of free India.
    • He made pioneering studies in anthropometry (the science of obtaining systematic measurements of the human body) in India.
    • He founded the Indian Statistical Institute and contributed to the design of large-scale sample surveys.
    • For his contributions, Mahalanobis has been considered the father of modern statistics in India.

  • IN-SPACe: Future forerunner for India’s space economy

    • The government approved the creation of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to ensure greater private participation in India’s space activities.
    • This decision is described as historic being part of an important set of reforms to open up the space sector and make space-based applications and services more widely accessible to everyone.

    Practice question for mains:

    Q. What is IN-SPACe? Discuss how it would benefit ISRO and contribute to India’s space economy.

    What is IN-SPACe?

    • IN-SPACe is supposed to be a facilitator, and also a regulator.
    • It will act as an interface between ISRO and private parties and assess how best to utilise India’s space resources and increase space-based activities.
    • IN-SPACe is the second space organisation created by the government in the last two years.
    • In the 2019 Budget, the government had announced the setting up of a New Space India Limited (NSIL), a public sector company that would serve as a marketing arm of ISRO.

    Confusion over NSIL and ANTRIX

    • NSIL’s main purpose is to market the technologies developed by ISRO and bring it more clients that need space-based services.
    • That role, incidentally, was already being performed by Antrix Corporation, another PSU working under the Department of Space, and which still exists.
    • It is still not very clear why there was a need for another organisation with overlapping function.
    • The government now had clarified the role of NSIL that it would have a demand-driven approach rather than the current supply-driven strategy.
    • Essentially, what that means is that instead of just marketing what ISRO has to offer, NSIL would listen to the needs of the clients and ask ISRO to fulfil those.

    Then, why was IN-SPACe needed?

    (1) ISRO and its limited resources

    • It is not that there is no private industry involvement in India’s space sector.
    • In fact, a large part of the manufacturing and fabrication of rockets and satellites now happens in the private sector. There is increasing participation of research institutions as well.
    • Indian industry, however, is unable to compete, because till now its role has been mainly that of suppliers of components and sub-systems.
    • Indian industries do not have the resources or the technology to undertake independent space projects of the kind that US companies such as SpaceX have been doing or provide space-based services.

    (2) India and the global space economy

    • Indian industry had a barely three per cent share in a rapidly growing global space economy which was already worth at least $360 billion.
    • Only two per cent of this market was for rocket and satellite launch services, which require fairly large infrastructure and heavy investment.
    • The remaining 95 per cent related to satellite-based services, and ground-based systems.

    (3) Catering to domestic demands

    • The demand for space-based applications and services is growing even within India, and ISRO is unable to cater to this.
    • The need for satellite data, imageries and space technology now cuts across sectors, from weather to agriculture to transport to urban development and more.
    • If ISRO is to provide everything, it would have to be expanded 10 times the current level to meet all the demand that is arising.

    (4) Promoting other private players

    • Right now, all launches from India happen on ISRO rockets, the different versions of PSLV and GSLV.
    • There were a few companies that were in the process of developing their own launch vehicles, the rockets like ISRO’s PSLV that carry the satellites and other payloads into space.
    • Now ISRO could provide all its facilities to private players whose projects had been approved by IN-SPACe.

    How ISRO gains from all these?

    • There are two main reasons why enhanced private involvement in the space sector seems important.
    • One is commercial, and the other strategic. And ISRO seems unable to satisfy this need on its own.
    • Of course, there is a need for greater dissemination of space technologies, better utilization of space resources, and increased requirement of space-based services.
    • The private industry will also free up ISRO to concentrate on science, research and development, interplanetary exploration and strategic launches.
    • Right now too much of ISRO’s resources are consumed by routine activities that delay its more strategic objectives.

    A win-win situation for all

    • ISRO, like NASA, is essentially a scientific organisation whose main objective is the exploration of space and carrying out scientific missions.
    • There are a number of ambitious space missions lined up in the coming years, including a mission to observe the Sun, a mission to the Moon, a human spaceflight, and then, possibly, a human landing on the Moon.
    • And it is not that private players will wean away from the revenues that ISRO gets through commercial launches.
    • The space-based economy is expected to “explode” in the next few years, even in India, and there would be more than enough for all.
    • In addition, ISRO can earn some money by making its facilities and data available to private players.

  • Coccolithophores: The Ancient Algae

    A study of microscopic ancient marine algae (Coccolithophores) has found that there is a decrease in the concentration of oceanic calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the Southern Indian Ocean.

    Try this question:

    Q.The Coccolithophores sometimes seen in news are-

    (a) Diatoms

    (b) Algae

    (c) Coral Polyps

    (d) Sea grass

    Coccolithophores

    • Coccolithophores are single-celled algae living in the upper layers of the world’s oceans.
    • They have been playing a key role in marine ecosystems and the global carbon cycle for millions of years.
    • They calcify marine phytoplankton that produces up to 40% of open ocean calcium carbonate and responsible for 20% of the global net marine primary productivity.
    • They build exoskeletons from individual CaCO3 plates consisting of chalk and seashells building the tiny plates on their exterior.

    Role as a carbon sink

    • Though carbon dioxide is produced during the formation of these plates, coccolithophores help in removing it from the atmosphere and ocean by consuming it during photosynthesis.
    • At equilibrium, they absorb more carbon dioxide than they produce, which is beneficial for the ocean ecosystem.
    • These investigations are important for future intervention to bring positive changes in the marine ecosystem and the global carbon cycle.

    Threats

    • The reduction of coccolithophores is due to an increase in the presence of diatom algae, which occurs after sea ice breakdown with climate change and ocean acidification, and increases the silicate concentration in the waters of the Southern Ocean.
    • Their existence is highly dependent on time and influenced by various environmental factors such as silicate concentrations, calcium carbonate concentration, diatom abundance, light intensity and availability of macro and possibly micronutrient concentrations.

  • Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe)

    The Union Cabinet has approved the creation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) to provide a level playing field for private companies to use Indian space infrastructure.

    Note the key differences between IN-SPACe, ANTRIX and NSIL. We can expect a prelims question with shuffled objectives of these organisations.

    IN-SPACe

    • The creation of IN-SPACe is part of reforms aimed at giving a boost to private sector participation in the entire range of space activities.
    • The IN-SPACe is expected to hand-hold, promote and guide the private industries in space activities through encouraging policies and a friendly regulatory environment.
    • It would endeavour to reorient space activities from a ‘supply-driven’ model to a ‘demand-driven’ one, thereby ensuring optimum utilization of the nation’s space assets.

    Why need IN-SPACe?

    • India is among a handful of countries with advanced capabilities in the space sector.
    • Space sector can play a major catalytic role in the technological advancement and expansion of our Industrial base.
    • The proposed reforms will enhance the socio-economic use of space assets and activities, including through improved access to space assets, data and facilities.

    Back2Basics: New Space India Limited (NSIL)

    • It functions under the administrative control of Department of Space (DOS).
    • It aims to commercially exploit the research and development work of ISRO Centres and constituent units of DOS.
    • The NSIL would enable Indian Industries to scale up high-technology manufacturing and production base for meeting the growing needs of the Indian space programme.
    • It would further spur the growth of Indian Industries in the space sector.

    ANTRIX

    • Antrix Corporation Limited (ACL), Bengaluru is a wholly-owned Government of India Company under the administrative control of the Department of Space.
    • It is as a marketing arm of ISRO for promotion and commercial exploitation of space products, technical consultancy services and transfer of technologies developed by ISRO.
    • Antrix is engaged in providing Space products and services to international customers worldwide.

  • Celebrating the contributors to agriculture

    This article introduces us to the Indian winners of the prize that is considered as the Nobel for research in food. Their contribution has benefited agriculture immensely.Here, we’ll get a brief idea about their work.

    Word Food Prize

    • The World Food Prize is often described as the Nobel for research in food.
    • It was set up by Ñorman Borlaug.
    • Borlaug won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1972 for his work on hybridisation of wheat and rice.
    • His work led to the Green Revolution in the mid-1960s.

    Indian winners of the award

    • The awards to eight Indians of the total of 50 given so far are a tribute to the country’s agricultural university education and research system.
    • The country should celebrate their achievements unabashedly when 7-10 million new productive jobs need to be created annually.
    • And when it accounts for a third of global undernourished.
    • The COVID-19 pandemic has made job creation and improved nutrition and health more urgent than ever.

    Let’s look at the contributions made by these personalities

     Rattan Lal

    • Rattan Lal was awarded for developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increasing food production.
    • This approach also restores and conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change.
    • His research has shown that growing crops on healthy soils produces more food from less land area, less use of agrochemicals, less tillage, less water, and less energy.

    M S Swaminathan

    • Swaminathan’s vision transformed India from a “begging bowl” to a “breadbasket” almost overnight.
    • His work helped bringing the total crop yield of wheat from 12 million tonnes to 23 million tonnes in four crop seasons.
    • Which helped in ending India’s dependence on grain imports.

    Verghese Kurien

    • Kurien, received the prize in 1989 for India’s white revolution.
    • Under his leadership, milk production increased from 23.3 million tonnes (1968-69) to 100.9 million tonnes (2006-07).
    • And now it is projected to reach 187 million tonnes for 2019-20.
    • This helped in bringing millions of small and marginal farmers, including women into the marketplace.

     Ramlal Barwale

    • Barwale, a small farmer and entrepreneur, received the award in 1996.
    • He made selling seeds of okra and sorghum “hip” and founded the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company.
    • The Crop Science Society of America has called him father of the seed industry in India.
    • He introduced hybrid rice from China to India.

    Surinder Vasal

    • Vasal was given the prize in 2000 for developing quality protein maize (QPM).
    • Integrating cereal chemistry and plant breeding techniques, Vasal and Villegas of Mexico collaborated to work on “opaque-2” maize variety using molecular biology techniques.
    • In the mid-1980s, they produced a QPM germplasm with hard kernel characteristics and taste like that of the traditional grain.
    • But it has much higher quality levels of lysine and tryptophan, thereby enhancing the nutrition value.

    Mododugu Gupta

    • Gupta received the award in 2005 for starting a blue revolution.
    • He developed two exceptional approaches for increasing fish harvests among the very poor.
    • This helped in increasing the protein and mineral content in the diets of over one million of the world’s most impoverished families.
    •  Gupta’s aquaculture technologies boosted Bangladesh’s fish yields from 304 kg per hectare to over 2,500 kg per hectare in less than a year — including 1,000 kg per hectare harvests in the dry season.

    Sanjaya Rajaram

    • Rajaram, who won the prize in 2014.
    • He succeeded Borlaug in leading CIMMYT’s wheat breeding programme.
    • There he went on to develop an astounding 480 varieties that have been widely adopted by both small and large-scale farmers.
    • Rajaram was born near a small farming village in Uttar Pradesh and received his master’s degree from IARI.

    Decreasing government support

    • The awardees all come from the time of the green and rainbow revolutions (of dairy and aqua-culture).
    • It was also the time when India invested heavily in agricultural science education and research and Indian scientists shone brightly in the global galaxy of science.
    • Government support for state agricultural universities, and research conducted by the ICAR and the departments of science and technology and biotechnology has slipped in recent years.
    • Today, not a single Indian university is counted among the top 100 in the world.
    Consider the question asked by the UPSC in 2019 “How was India benefitted from the contributions of Sir M.Visvesvaraya and Dr M. S. Swaminathan in the fields of water engineering and agricultural science respectively?”

    Conclusion

    Students and faculty at ICAR and state agricultural universities can follow in their footsteps and achieve scientific excellence, if they receive the resources and their work is supported with incentives.

  • What is Foldscope?

    Indian researchers have explored and validated the clinical utility of Foldscope in the diagnosis of diseases using various patient samples.

    Though trivial, Foldscope is a significant invention with most crucial applications. It somehow offers an alternative to costly microscopes for some basic diagnosis.

    What is Foldscope?

    • Foldscope is an affordable origami-based microscopy device composed of a series of paper clippings.
    • Upon assembly, the device can hold a specimen slide for observation, and this specimen can be viewed via a mobile phone camera attached to it.

    How does it work?

    • Foldscope can be assembled using paper clips and mounted on a cell phone using coupler and glue drops.
    • To do the assessment, a patient sample like urine is smeared on a transparent glass slide and visualized under a Foldscope mounted on a cell phone.
    • Sample images can be enlarged using the zoom function of the mobile, which can be stored on the mobile memory card for later reference/patient records.
    • Foldscope visualizes calcium oxalate crystals, which are a major cause of kidney stones.

    Utility of Foldscope

    • Foldscope is particularly convenient to diagnose urinary tract infection (UTI) and monitor kidney stone.
    • The study evaluated the use of Foldscope in the clinical diagnosis of oral and urinary tract infections.
    • Using this tool, one can easily monitor own-kidney stone status at home with a simple glass-slide, a Foldscope and a phone in hand.
    • Such monitoring could perhaps avoid kidney stone reaching a painful state or surgery in recurring cases.

  • Sukapha: The founder of Ahom kingdom

    Recently, Assam CM ordered the arrest of a political commentator who had described Chaolung Sukapha as a “Chinese invader”.

    Practice question for mains:

    Q. Who are the Ahoms? Describe the role of Ahom Kingdom in cultural assimilation of modern-day Assam.

    Who was Chaolung Sukapha?

    • Sukapha was a 13th-century ruler who founded the Ahom kingdom that ruled Assam for six centuries. Contemporary scholars trace his roots to Burma.
    • He reached Brahmaputra valley in Assam from upper Burma in the 13th century with around 9,000 followers.
    • Sukapha is said to have left a place called Maulung ( in Yunnan, China ) in AD 1215 with eight nobles and 9,000 men, women and children — mostly men.
    • In 1235, Sukapha and his people settled in Charaideo in upper Assam after wandering about for years, defeating those who protested his advance and temporarily staying at different locations.
    • It was in Charaideo (in Assam) that Sukapha established his first small principality, sowing the seeds of further expansion of the Ahom kingdom.

    Who are the Ahoms today?

    • The founders of the Ahom kingdom had their own language and followed their own religion.
    • Over the centuries, the Ahoms accepted the Hindu religion and the Assamese language, scholars say.
    • The Ahoms embraced the language, religion and rituals of the communities living here — they did not impose theirs on those living here.
    • Today, the Ahom community is estimated to number between 4 million and 5 million.

    Why is Sukapha important in Assamese culture?

    • Sukapha’s significance — especially in today’s Assam — lies in his successful efforts towards the assimilation of different communities and tribes.
    • He developed very amicable relationships with the tribal communities living here — especially the Sutias, the Morans and the Kacharis.
    • Intermarriage also increased assimilation processes. He is widely referred to as the architect of “Bor Asom” or “greater Assam”.

  • Detection of Fluorine in hot Extreme Helium (EHe) Stars

    A study by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) has detected the presence of singly ionized fluorine for the first time in the atmospheres of hot Extreme Helium Stars.

    UPSC may ask a simple statement-based question considering the following points:

    If there is the presence of hydrogen, their abundance in universe and how it is different from neutron stars etc.

    What are EHe stars?

    • An extreme helium star or EHe is a low-mass supergiant that is almost devoid of hydrogen, the most common chemical element of the universe.
    • There are 21 of them detected so far in our galaxy.
    • The origin and evolution of these Hydrogen deficient objects have been shrouded in mystery.
    • Their severe chemical peculiarities challenge the theory of well-accepted stellar evolution as the observed chemical composition of these stars do not match with that predicted for low mass evolved stars.

    Why is the study significant?

    • Clues to the evolution of extreme helium stars require accurate determinations of their chemical composition, and the peculiarities, if any, become very important.
    • Fluorine plays a very crucial role in this regard to determine the actual evolutionary sequence of these hydrogen deïŹcient objects.
    • The scientists explored the relationship of hot EHes with the cooler EHes, based on their ïŹ‚uorine abundance and spotted it in the former, thus establishing an evolutionary connection across a wide range of eïŹ€ective temperature.
    • This makes a strong case that the main form of these objects involves a merger of a carbon-oxygen (CO) and a Helium (He) white dwarf.
    • The detection of enhanced ïŹ‚uorine abundances in the atmospheres of hot EHes solves a decade-old mystery about their formation.

  • Kodumanal Megalithic Burial Site

    The Kodumanal excavation in Erode Dist. of Tamil Nadu has threw light on burial rituals and the concept of afterlife in megalithic culture.

    Must read:

    Chapter 1 | Stone Age – Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic

    About these sites

    • The researchers have identified 250 cairn-circles at the village in Erode district.
    • Earlier excavations revealed that the site served as a trade-cum-industrial centre from 5th century BCE to 1st century BCE.
    • The rectangular chambered cists, each two metres long and six metres wide, are made of stone slabs, and the entire grave is surrounded by boulders that form a circle.
    • The grave could be of a village head or the head of the community as the size of two boulders, each facing east and west, are bigger than other boulders.
    • Believing that the deceased person will get a new life after death, pots and bowls filled with grains were placed outside the chambers.

    What are Megaliths?

    • Megaliths are the earliest surviving man-made monuments we know of—derived from the Latin mega (large) and lith (stone).
    • Megaliths were constructed either as burial sites or commemorative (non-sepulchral) memorials.
    • The former are sites with actual burial remains, such as dolmenoid cists (box-shaped stone burial chambers), cairn circles (stone circles with defined peripheries) and capstones (distinctive mushroom-shaped burial chambers found mainly in Kerala).
    • The urn or the sarcophagus containing the mortal remains was usually made of terracotta.
    • Non-sepulchral megaliths include memorial sites such as menhirs. (The line separating the two is a bit blurry, since remains have been discovered underneath otherwise non-sepulchral sites, and vice versa.)
    • In India, archaeologists trace the majority of the megaliths to the Iron Age (1500 BC to 500 BC), though some sites precede the Iron Age, extending up to 2000 BC.

    Megaliths in India

    • Megaliths are spread across the Indian subcontinent, though the bulk of them are found in peninsular India, concentrated in the states of Maharashtra (mainly in Vidarbha), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
    • According to archaeologists around 2,200 megalithic sites can be found in peninsular India itself, most of them unexcavated.
    • Even today, a living megalithic culture endures among some tribes such as the Gonds of central India and the Khasis of Meghalaya.

    Literary sources

    • Megalithic culture finds several references in ancient Tamil Sangam literature. For instance, menhirs are referred to as nadukal.
    • Ancient Sangam texts lay out, in detail, a step-by-step procedure for laying a memorial stone or nadukal in honour of a fallen hero.
    • Manimekalai (5th century AD), the famous Sangam epic, refers to the various kinds of burials namely cremation (cuáč­uvƍr), post excarnation burial (iáč­uvƍr), burying the deceased in a pit (toáč­ukuáž»ip paáč­uvƍr), rock chamber or cist burial (tāុvāyiáč‰ aáč­aippƍr), urn burial encapped with lid (tāុiyiáčŸ kavippƍr).
    • Even in the Sangam age (when kingship and a well-ordained society had emerged) the above modes of burials survived.

  • What is Axone?

    A movie named Axone — also spelt akhuni —soya bean dish of Nagaland has been recently released.

    The traditional ‘Axone’ dish is very unique in itself. However, one must note that it does NOT carry any GI tag. Still, there is a possibility of it being asked in match the pair type questions.

    What is Axone?

    • Axone — also spelt akhuni — is a fermented soya bean of Nagaland, known for its distinctive flavour and smell.
    • As much an ingredient as it is a condiment, Axone used to make pickles and chutneys, or curries of pork, fish, chicken, beef etc.
    • While it is called ‘axone’ in parts of Nagaland, fermented soya bean is cooked with, eaten and known by different names in different parts of Northeast India, including Meghalaya and Mizoram, Sikkim, Manipur as well in other South, Southeast and East Asian countries.
    • Axone is prepared and eaten across Nagaland but is particularly popular among the Sumi (also Sema) tribe. They use it in every meal.