Science-Tech Issues 2018

Current Affairs Update
Science & Technology Issues 2017-18
Dr. Vivek Rana

Abhimanu’s IAS Study Group
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2017-18

India Neutrino Observatory project
The INO project is of the nation's largest scientific project yet, where nearly 100
scientists, from 25 research institutes and universities across the country, would
be collaborating to create new waves in particle physics with their research.
Location: Bodi West hills of Tamil Nadu’s Theni district (Pottipuram village).
Organization involved:
The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research is the nodal institution. The
observatory is to be built jointly with the Department of Atomic Energy and the
Department of Science and Technology.
Salient features:
It is an underground project and will comprise a complex of caverns. The main
cavern, which will house the huge neutrino detector [50-kilo tonne magnetised
iron calorimeter], will be 130 m long, 26 m wide, and 30 m high. Two smaller
caverns will be used for setting up experiments for neutrino double detector and
dark matter. Approach to this complex will be by a 2-km-long tunnel.
What is a neutrino & how is it produced?

Neutrinos are the smallest particles that form the universe. An elusive
elementary particle that travels at near light speeds, Neutrinos are one of the
universe’s essential and most abundant ingredients. Neutrinos—fundamental
particles with almost no mass that are produced either by radioactivity in the
atmosphere, or by the Sun, or by high energy particles coming from space.
Importance:
Neutrinos can help scientists understand some of the most fundamental
questions in physics — such as understanding the evolution of the universe,
figuring out the energy production mechanism in the Sun and why the universe is
made up of matter, not antimatter. Studying neutrinos is difficult. They’re tough
to detect since they interact so weakly with other particles.
Significance for India:

A pioneer in the field of neutrino science, India was a world leader in 1965. In the
mid-1990s, with the closing of the Kolar Gold Fields which was the site of the
experiments, experimental neutrino research in India came to a halt, and the INO
is expected to revive the lost advantage. A successful INO experiment will be a
major technological and scientific national achievement
Major neutrino projects around the world:

Underground:
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1.Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, Canada

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2.Kamioka in Japan

3. Gran Sasso, Italy.

Underwater:
1.Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica.
2.Antares - under Mediterranean sea off coast of Toulon, France.
Controversies associated with INO project:

The rosy dream of INO being a full-fledged, underground science laboratory for
studies in physics has run into obstacles since its inception in 2002.
Threat to biodiversity: The project faced initial setbacks when the first
chosen location in Singara near Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu faced immense
protest from environmental groups, due to a perceived threat to Mudumalai
Tiger Reserve. It was then shifted to Bodi West Hills in Theni, where the
project again raised many environmental concerns, again due to its proximity
to Mathikettan Shola National Park in Kerala (situated within five km
from the project site)
Issues regarding environmental clearance: The principal sticking point

appears to be the environmental clearance for the project (Confusion about
whether the INO was cleared in the right category by the environment ministry)
Widespread misinformation about project: Another major issue is

widespread misinformation about the nature of the project. Locals fear that the
excavation and blasts needed to bore the tunnel in the mountains will endanger
the biodiversity of the Western Ghats. Some of the concerns voiced range from
radiation, structural damage to the mountain to emission of hazardous
chemicals.
Constructed in seismic sensitive zone: The INO is set to constructed in a

seismologically sensitive zone, and that drilling work to be undertaken in the area
could damage underwater aquifers. Idukki mullai periyar dam is near to the site
which may bring a disaster to the Dam.
Costly project: Spending crores on scientific research of this kind (no direct
socio-economic benefit) is a waste of money.
Counter arguments:
Radiation from the Lab could pose a threat to the biodiversity around:
There will be no radiation emitting from the lab; the lab is that deep in the earth
to keep out radiation (to study environmental neutrinos without the interference
of cosmic radiation).
The mountain may become unstable: As INO scientists have said, the lab
will not affect the structural stability of the mountain. The tunnel will be tiny,
when compared to the underground mines that were operational for more than
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100 years. While making the tunnel, the technological advancement will ensure
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that the environment is left untouched; at the most, the rock blasting will cause
flutters, but that won’t last long, and normalcy will be restored in no time.
There will be hazardous chemicals and gases: To ensure safety of the

experiment and the people working in the lab, the gases will be recycled many
times and only then let off in controlled amounts. The equipment and the gases
used for the experiment will be hermetically sealed, so there’s no chance of any
pollution/contamination from there.
*Scientists have junked all these claims as baseless and unfounded.

The INO faculty will give Indian particle physics students the chance to do
cutting-edge research at home.
Practice ques: Discuss various controversies surrounding homegrown mega-

science project India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO).
SIPRI Report: Trends in International Arms Transfers,

2017
Assessment done: For a five-year period (2013-2017)
Top five global arms importers:

1. India (12%)
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Egypt
4. United Arab Emirates
5. China
6. Algeria
Top five global arms Exporters:

1. USA (34%)
2. Russia (20%)
3. France (6.7%)
4. Germany
5. China
Varunastra
➢ India’s first Indigenously-built state-of -the-art heavyweight anti-
submarine torpedo (95 per cent indigenous content) inducted in
the navy, making India one of the eight countries to have the capability to
design and build such a system.
➢ Developed by: Naval Science and Technological Laboratory
(NSTL), DRDO lab
➢ Will be manufactured at: Bharat Dynamics Ltd
➢ Role: Capable of targeting stealthy submarines, both in deep and littoral
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waters in intense counter-measure environment.

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Fifth Generation Fighter Jets

➢ The U.S. Air Force has declared an initial squadron of F-35 Lightning II
fifth generation fighter jets combat ready.
➢ Designed by: Lockheed Martin Corp
➢ Cost: $379 billion (the Pentagon's largest weapons project)
➢ Significance: F-35 will give the U.S. military the ability to detect enemy
aircraft and other threats far beyond current ranges, allowing the jets to
strike targets and disappear long before they are detected.
➢ 10 countries have already ordered these jets: Britain, Australia, Norway,
Italy, Turkey, Denmark, the Netherlands, Israel, South Korea and Japan.
ASTROSAT
➢ Launch vehicle: PSLV C-30
➢ Launch site: Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh
SIGNIFICANCE:
➢ With successful launch of Astosat, India becomes the first country in
the developing world to have its very own telescope in space
(Other Nations to achieve this feat-USA, Russia & Japan). Till date, Indian
astronomers had to rely on international resources for X-ray and
ultraviolet data.
➢ This flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is historic as, for
the first time; American satellites are being launched by India.
Till recently, the US had kept ISRO under sanctions and was denied the
critical cryogenic engine technology which pushed back India's foray into
deep space by two decades.
➢ American satellites launched: four small LEMUR satellites for a San
Francisco-based company
FOREIGN PASSENGERS:
➢ Four identical LEMUR satellites for the United States: non-visual
remote sensing satellites aimed to focus on global maritime intelligence
through vessel tracking.
➢ Canada’s NLS-14: a maritime monitoring nanosatellite using the
Automatic Identification System,
➢ Indonesia’s LAPAN-A2: aimed at benefiting Indonesian radio amateur
communities for disaster mitigation and carrying out Earth surveillance.
SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES OF MISSION:

➢ To understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing
neutron stars and black holes
➢ Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars
➢ Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying
beyond our galaxy
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➢ Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky

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➢ Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet

region
LIMITATIONS OF GROUND BASED TELESCOPES:

➢ India does have ground-based telescopes (including the Giant Metrewave
Radio Telescope near Pune and the Indian Astronomical Observatory in
Ladakh). But like all other ground-based telescopes, these can only
detect radio waves and infrared radiation as they penetrate the
Earth’s atmosphere. However, in the case of higher frequency radiations,
the atmosphere tends to block most ultraviolet light and all X-rays and
gamma-rays.
GSLV-F09 Mission (South Asia satellite successfully launched)

➢ Launch site: SHAR, Sriharikota
➢ Launch vehicle: GSLV-F09
➢ Satellite launched: GSAT-9
➢ Nickname: South Asian satellite
➢ Nature of satellite: Communication Satellite
➢ Application: Providing communication and disaster support,
connectivity among the countries of South Asia region
Highlights:
➢ Seven of the eight Saarc countries—India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives—are a part of the project (Pakistan opted
out).
➢ New chapter in the sphere of space diplomacy
➢ First time Electric Propulsion System successfully tested.
South Asia Satellite launched-India aces space

diplomacy test
Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has put India's space diplomacy
into the orbit which PM Narendra Modi had desired three years ago, with the
successful launch of the South Asia Satellite, marking a new era in regional
communication and integration. The Prime Minister had asked Isro in 2014 to
develop a SAARC satellite that can be dedicated as a 'gift' to the country's
neighbours. It was earlier referred as the SAARC satellite, but was renamed
after Pakistan opted out of the project.
Also called the Geostationary Communication Satellite-9 (GSAT-9), it will have a

footprint that extends all over South Asia, allowing six neighbouring countries to
use its benefits. This is in line with India's neighbourhood first policy, which
leaders from all the member nations of the project acknowledged. The project
cost India an estimated Rs 450 crore (including launch cost and other variables),
while the satellite itself costs about Rs 235 crore. The launch, from the Satish
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Dhawan Space Centre, is being widely seen as a display of India's soft power and
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regional influence.

Applications:
➢ Natural resources mapping, tele medicine, the field of education, deeper
IT connectivity or fostering people-to-people contact -- this satellite
will prove to be a boon in the progress of the entire region.
➢ The satellite is meant for providing communication and disaster
support, connectivity among countries in the South Asia region. As the
region is highly prone to earthquakes, cyclones, floods, tsunamis, it may
help in providing critical communication links in times of disasters.
➢ It will also provide a significant capability to each of these participating
countries in terms of DTH, certain VSAT capacity plus links for both
disaster information transfer and also in terms of library type of things.
➢ The satellite is also expected to help support their water conservation
initiatives, by providing data, forecasting weather and sending alerts on
natural disasters.
➢ With India's GSAT-09, South Asian countries can also save the investment
they would have had to make on developing a communication satellite and
launching it.
Conclusion:
India is the strongest in Space missions among these countries in the region,
since it has developed and lauched its own satellite launchers and satellites and
has placed itself among the elite group of space exploring countries. While Sri
Lanka has its own communication satellites, it was deployed with the help of
China. Bangladesh is in the process of developing a satellite with the help of a
French firm. Afghanistan also has a communication satellite, an old India-made
satellite acquired from Europe. The Indian project will be of great benefit to
Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives, which do not have space programmes of their own
and are particularly susceptible to climate-related disasters.
India has written a new chapter in the sphere of space diplomacy

by launching the South Asia Satellite, which has been described as India's
"priceless gift" to its neighbours. As the relations with Pakistan and China
are strained in connection with the border disputes, the smaller neighbouring
countries which are closer to India geographically would be a support for the
country's security. There is no doubt the country is actively trying to counter
China's growing influence over its neighbours through this satellite.
Practice Question: Discuss applications of GSAT-9 satellite & explain how it

can help in regional integration? Will India's strident regional space diplomacy
yield results?
ISRO creates World Record, PSLV C37 Mission successful

➢ Launch vehicle: PSLV C37
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➢ Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota

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➢ Satellites launched: 104 (3 Indian+101 Foreign nanosatellites)

➢ Indian satellites: Cartosat- 2 series (Earth observation satellite), INS-

1A & INS-1B (nanosatellites of Isro)
Application of Cartosat: cartographic applications, urban and rural

applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road
network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change
detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other land
information system (LIS) and geographical information system (GSI)
applications.
Foreign satellites: 96 from the US and one each from Israel, the UAE, the
Netherlands, Switzerland and Kazakhstan.
*ISRO beats the record held by Russia, which in 2014 catapulted 37 satellites in a
single launch.
PSLV C37 Mission-A critical analysis

India has emerged as a "key player" in a growing global commercial market for
space-based surveillance and communication after it scripted history by
successfully launching 104 satellites using a single rocket-PSLV C37, breaking the
current record of 37 set by Russia in 2014. In the process, it also bettered its own
record of sending 20 satellites in one go. Admittedly, 90 per cent of the satellites
were in the micro category or less than 5 kg each. But there were complexities
involved. The biggest challenge was to launch them in manner that they don’t
bump into each other. The successful launch is yet another feather in the cap of
India's ambitious space programme that has earned a reputation of offering a
reliable low cost alternative to existing international players.
Opportunities & Challenges:

Putting commercial satellites into space for a fee is a growing business sector.
That's because phone, Internet and other companies, as well as countries, are
seeking greater and more high-tech communications. Isro has established a solid
reputation as a cheap but reliable bulk carrier of satellites to earth orbit. Demand
will increase as satellite swarms and cheap personalised devices become popular,
and bulk launchers like Isro can look forward to a window of opportunity. Before
this mega launch, India had sent into space 79 satellites from 21 countries and its
order book is bound to swell after PSLV C 37 flawless and cost-effective
performance.
But the window will close when entrepreneurs like Elon Musk begin to offer
reusable launch vehicles which glide back to earth. These will slash launch costs
dramatically, while Isro’s own reusable vehicle Avatar remains on the drawing
board. In the interim, Isro may wish to probe other revenue streams — the
services and technologies which space projects always spin off — to subsidise
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hard science and prestige projects like Mangalyaan.

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Satellite communications networks generate remote sensing and GPS data and
deliver media, telecommunications and telemedicine. Besides, the design and
fabrication of space vehicles can spin off products and technologies of great value
in industry, like refractory materials and compounds designed to withstand the
hostile environment in space, or inside a rocket engine.
Technologies and hacks are constantly developed for communications, imaging,

telemetry and remote sensing which can find application in diverse industries,
from mining to taxicab aggregation. Space industries are perceived to work
mainly for the national interest, but the commercial possibilities are immense.
Having made its mark in the launch vehicle market, Isro could consider
developing new revenue streams. As space is privatised and commercialised, it
will make a difference to its prospects.
The other major issue is whether the Indian satellites currently orbiting in space
are value for money. An audit of non-military satellites revealed that their
capacity utilisation was half and the income from the sale of imagery and data
was less than the expenditure. The CBI probe into the earlier doings of its
commercial arm Antrix may further affect its attempts to become more market
savvy. The steady increase in its budget is appreciable when compared with the
stagnant budgets of its American and Russian counterparts. But the allocation is
still one-sixth of its main competitor, China. ISRO also needs additional funds to
develop and launch satellites that will assist the agriculture sector. It is not
enough for ISRO to rest on its laurels.
Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology

Demonstrator (RLV-TD)
After the successful deployment of the swadeshi Global Positioning System
through NAVIC or Navigation with Indian Constellation, ISRO is again reaching
for the stars. The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully tested its
indigenous version of a “space shuttle’, a fully made-in-India effort. The big
powers have abandoned the idea of a winged reusable launch vehicle but
India’s frugal engineers believe the solution to reducing the cost of launching
satellites into orbit is to recycle the rocket or make it reusable. Scientists at ISRO
believe that they could reduce the cost of launching stuff into space by as much
as 10 times if reusable technology succeeds, bringing it down to $2,000 per kg.
The RLV-TD is described as “a very preliminary step” in the development of a

reusable rocket, whose final version is expected to take 10-15 years. For India, the
launch of their mini shuttle shows that they are ready to step in the ring and offer
a new solution to the economic pitfalls of space exploration.
Key technology involved:

One key technology the scientists had to develop was to make materials that can
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withstand the very high temperatures that the exterior of the vehicle is faced with
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as it comes back into the dense atmosphere after its journey through near
vacuum in space.
To be able to withstand 5000-7000 degrees Celsius temperature, the
scientists have developed very lightweight heat resistant silica tiles that are
plastered on the underbelly of the so-called Indian space plane. In fact, it is these
heat resistant tiles and thermal coating that failed on Space Shuttle Columbia
that resulted in the death of Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla in 2003.
Competition with SpaceX Rockets:

The low-cost commercial foreign satellite launch services of the Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) are poised to take a severe beating at the hands of
Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) fly-back
rockets, the Falcon 9 series. SpaceX, headquartered in Hawthorne, California,
has developed a technology of soft-landing its rocket's first stage at a
predetermined location after a satellite launch, reassembling that with a second
stage, refuelling and sending the assembled rocket on a second launch mission
into space within hours of the previous one.
Conventional launches by the Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO and other space

agencies not only add to the cost of readying a new launcher, but also the time
taken for the next launch. According to Musk, SpaceX's concept - which is being
successfully tested - can drastically cut spaceflight costs "by a factor of
100", making the company a low-cost game-changer in the satellite market.
ISRO gained popularity for its 100% successful foreign satellite launches using
the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) rockets, charging just 60% of the fees
charged by foreign space agencies such as Arianespace. Since May 1999, it has
successfully launched 57 international customer satellites from 20 countries on
board the PSLV. ISRO's global client list includes EADS Astrium, Intelsat, Avanti
Group, WorldSpace, Inmarsat, World Sat, DLR, KARI, Eutelsat and several other
space institutions across Europe, West Asia and South-East Asia.
But all that is likely to change. Former National Aerospace Laboratories director
and the longest serving member (resigned in 2012) of the Indian space
commission, Prof Roddam Narasimha said, "At least for some time, ISRO will not
be affected. But what SpaceX is doing will eventually drastically reduce launch
costs." He said India's PSLV launcher, which has been a complete success, will
continue to hold sway for at least "some time to come" as SpaceX is yet to perfect
its technologies. But SpaceX already has about 70 launches in its kitty worth $10
billion in contracts. These include commercial satellite launches (which ISRO
does) and missions for NASA under a $1.6 billion contract to fly a series of 12
cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station, besides carrying
crew. In August 2014, ISRO's customer Eutelsat (the third largest fixed satellite
services operator in the world) planned to spend about 100 million lesser per
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year till 2017 and preferred SpaceX over ISRO. The goal for everyone in the
spaceflight game right now is to dramatically decrease the amount of money
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needed to launch materials or people into space, and collaboration will be key.

Practice question: Discuss the significance of RLV-TD for Indian space

programme & challenges it is likely to face in this endeavor.
The Problem with Space Debris and Possible Solutions

Once in space, the biggest threat to astronauts and spacecrafts is space debris.
Space debris, also known as space junk or space waste, are potentially
dangerous and useless objects in Earth’s orbit. These objects are either man-
made (such as spent stages of rockets, broken off pieces of spaceships or
equipment, old unusable satellites, and even small flecks of paint) or natural
(such as space rocks, ice, and dust). The problem with space debris is how
hazardous they can be if they impact a spacecraft or even a spacewalking
astronaut.
Scientists have been worrying about space trash since the 1970s. Humans have
placed thousands of objects into orbit since Sputnik, and some of those old
satellites and ejected rockets are slowly breaking apart. As pieces collide with
each other at high speeds and shatter, they create more debris. There are
approximately 11,000 pieces of space debris in Earth’s orbit that are larger than
three inches and can be currently detected. And there are probably millions or
even billions of smaller pieces of space debris that are unable to be detected.
Despite the size of these objects, they all have the potential to be lethal
because of the speed that they are traveling, especially since most space debris
are traveling hundreds or thousands of kilometers per hour. For
instance, it has been found that even a single grain of sand has caused serious
damage to the heat shields of the space shuttles. Now imagine the catastrophic
and deadly impact if a piece of space debris punctures an astronaut’s spacesuit,
cracks a window on the space station, or blasts a hole in a spaceship.
Space junk is a classic example of the Tragedy of the Commons, the economic
term for when a bunch of individual agents, for example shepherds, use a
common good, like a nice grazing patch. Each individual shepherd acts according
to his or her self-interest, allowing their flock to eat grass, grow fat, and produce
milk. But too many individuals acting this way will overgraze the common good,
destroying its use for everyone. NASA and other space agencies have been
treating the orbits around Earth in exactly this way, operating under the “Big
Sky theory.” Space is huge and the chances of anything running into anything
else are small. Eventually, most things will drop back down, burning up in our
atmosphere or splashing down harmlessly in the ocean.
Mitigation methods:
Currently, there are three methods to mitigate against space junk.
First, old satellites are now starting to be returned to Earth where they will
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hopefully completely burned up in the atmosphere or crash into unpopulated

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areas. However, some satellites, such as the Hubble Telescope, have no such

plans for removing them from orbit. Another piece of space debris could hit these
satellites, cause an explosion, and create millions of more pieces of space junk.
These pieces of space debris could literally become dangerous and lethal
shrapnel.
Another solution is to put shielding on spaceships and space stations. For

instance, the International Space Station is the most fortified habitat ever in
space. Unfortunately, not all parts of the space station, such as the solar panels
and windows, are able to be shielded. Also, spacesuits have almost no protection
from space debris.
The final solution for space junk is avoidance. Most spacecrafts and satellites
are able to move in order to avoid being impacted from space debris. However,
since only objects that are larger than 3 inches can be detected, there are a huge
number of objects that are not known and thus can never be avoided.
Innovative solutions:
There are lots of bright ideas for cleaning up debris, but countries often wrangle
over how to pay for them.
Since it is not economically feasible for a spacecraft to pick up all the pieces of
space junk, then a laser could be used that could vaporize or redirect
space debris back to Earth. This laser would probably be most easily installed
on the International Space Station, since it will need a huge supply of power that
I think the space station could be upgraded to provide. Since only large objects
can be detected and redirected by the laser, this solution would be limited.
Create massive blobs of aerogel or lightweight surfaces with huge

surface areas so that space debris would impact and be stuck to. Since
these objects would be in a slow decaying orbit, this would in affect be a large
vacuum cleaner removing potential dangerous materials from space.
Furthermore, aerogel would be most cost effective to launch into orbit and burn
up completely in Earth’s atmosphere.
World’s 1st hack-proof satellite

China has successfully launched the world’s first quantum satellite which
can provide ‘hack-proof’ communications at speeds faster than light between
space and the ground with significant military and commercial applications. It is
set to launch Beijing far ahead of its global rivals in the drive to acquire a highly
coveted asset in the age of cyberespionage- hack-proof communications.
Name of satellite: Micius
Nomenclature: Named after a fifth century BC Chinese philosopher and
scientist who has been credited as the first one in human history conducting
optical experiments
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Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, Gobi Desert

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Mission objective:
In its two-year mission, the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) is
designed to establish ‘hack-proof’ quantum communications by transmitting
uncrackable keys from space to the ground and provide insights into the
strangest phenomenon in quantum physics - quantum entanglement (a
physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated
or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be
described independently — instead, a quantum state must be described for the
system as a whole)
Advantages of Quantum communications:

Quantum communication boasts of ultra-high security as a quantum photon can
neither be separated nor duplicated. It is hence impossible to wiretap,
intercept or crack the information transmitted through it. A quantum
key is formed by a string of random numbers generated between two
communicating users to encode information. Once intercepted or measured, the
quantum state of the key will change, and the information being intercepted will
self-destruct. Quantum physicists have recently advanced the use of photons to
communicate securely over short distances on earth. The satellite, if successful,
would vastly expand the range of unhackable communication.
Analysis:
China's big-spending quantum research initiative, part of Beijing's broader multi-
billion dollar strategy to overtake the West in science and space research,
is being closely watched in global scientific research and security circles, with
groups from Canada, Japan, Singapore and Europe also planning their own
quantum space experiments. Quantum technology is a major strategic focus of
China's most recent five-year economic development plan, with investment likely
driven in part by concern over the cyber capabilities of the United States. The
technology could likely initially be used to transmit sensitive diplomatic,
government and military information, with future applications including secure
transmission of personal and financial data. If Quantum Experiments at Space
Scale (QUESS) satellite is successful, China hopes to erect an Asian-European
quantum key distribution network by 2020, and a global quantum
communications network in 2030.
What is MTCR and how can India benefit from it?

Missile Technology Control Regime is an anti-proliferation group of 34 nations
that aims to limit the spread of ballistic missiles and other unmanned delivery
systems that could be used for chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks. India
had applied for its membership last year and now the member nations have
agreed to admit it into the group.
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Benefits:
1. India's entry into the MTCR is a step closer to its Nuclear Suppliers Group
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(NSG) membership.

2. The entry into this group will shape the future of India’s engagement with not
just the MTCR but also the broader global non-proliferation community.
3. Admission to the MTCR would open the way for India to buy high-end missile
technology.
4. After MTCR's announcement, India and the US are expected to fast-track their
discussion on sale of predator series of unmanned aircraft for the Indian military.
The Predator drone, which recently eliminated the Taliban leader in Afghanistan,
is the preferred tool of the CIA. Membership into MTCR is a huge boost for
India's ability to procure this capability.
5. India also makes a supersonic cruise missile, the Brahmos, in a joint venture
with Russia that both hope to sell to third countries. Membership of the rules-
based MTCR would require India to comply with rules - such as a maximum
missile range of 300 km - that seek to prevent arms races from developing.
6. India is set to discuss the possible sale of the BrahMos supersonic cruise
missiles to Vietnam. Vietnam has been keen on acquiring the conventional
precision-strike missiles, which fly almost three times the speed of sound, for
several years now. But both India and Russia will have to agree to export them to
a third country.
7. It will also enhance the level of understanding between MTCR member nations
and India, allowing the latter to import technologies for peaceful purposes.
Trappist-1
For the first time, astronomers have discovered seven Earth-size
planets orbiting a single nearby star. This cluster of planets is less than 40 light-
years away in the constellation Aquarius. The planets circle tightly around a
dim dwarf star called Trappist-1. Three are in the so-called habitable zone, the
area around a star where water and, possibly life, might exist. Altogether,
astronomers have confirmed close to 3,600 planets outside our solar system since
the 1990s, but barely four dozen are in the potential habitable zone of their stars,
and of those, just 18 are approximately the size of Earth.
Chatbots-the next technology wave

Everybody from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar
Pichai to Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg have touted chatbots as the next
big thing in the world of technology. Chatbot is a type of conversational agent, a
computer program designed to simulate an intelligent conversation
(through artificial intelligence) with one or more human users via auditory or
textual methods. Chat bots are used in applications such as ecommerce customer
service, call centers and Internet gaming. Chat bots used for these purposes are
typically limited to conversations regarding a specialized purpose and not for the
entire range of human communication.
Potential:
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Chatbots as a concept is going to evolve and become meaningful. They will create
more opportunities for new companies to explode from nothing into prominence.
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They will create many new business strategy opportunities. Chatbots have already

been incorporated in some popular messaging services such as China's Wechat.

Tech giants like Microsoft and Google are also working to bring this technology to
their platforms.
Chatbots will bring the revolution in online and consumer-based industries
which deal in the product and service sectors where millions of customers, buyers
and sellers interact with limited sales or service executives to resolve their basic
queries. Successful customer service teams will soon be a blended alliance of
chatbots and human experts.
Indian context:
But back home, popularity of chatbots could lend a significant blow to the Indian
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. Chatbots, are making their debut
on Facebook, Google and Skype and function as robotic customer service
representatives for a host of companies such as taxi, e-commerce, news, weather
etc, and are increasingly being deployed globally and in India. Given that they
can take over traditional customer service functions, chatbots could spell
significant loss of revenues for BPO firms along with leading to erosion of low-
end jobs. While there are no exact estimates, experts peg low-end jobs to be
anywhere between 5-6% of the overall revenues of the BPO industry which stood
at $28 billion. While the concept is still in its infancy, rough assumptions would
suggest that the scope for automation would be 5-6% of the total $28 billion
industry out of which domestic BPO is between $2-3 billion. It would hit the
commoditized basic tasks the first and the hardest.
A few years ago, a majority of the voice business of the Indian BPO industry
moved to countries such as Philippines due to availability of cheaper and better
talent. The industry captains recouped after the initial blow by moving to high-
end tasks such as data analytics. As technology evolve, transactions will become
more complicated and need for human intervention will arise for different kind of
jobs.
It is too early to predict the serviceableness of chatbots in the industry because it

is based on AI which works on the simulation of available words and sentences in
a dictionary which is far behind human intelligence. Artificial intelligence isn’t
equipped to deal with more complex or more nuanced situations that customers
face on a daily basis. So although it’s perfectly fine to get excited about bots, it’s
also critical to remember that the main reason people love messaging is because
of the human being on the other end. The need for human interaction is innate
and won’t be replaced any time soon. Creating meaningful engagements that
breed long-term connected relationships is crucial to driving loyalty, which in
turn delivers its own business benefits. Chatbots don’t spell the end of human
customer service agents, quite the contrary. The introduction of chatbots
provides an opportunity to refocus on true quality service and delivery.
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Eventually, chatbots will be omnipresent but initially, they will be less than
perfect. AI has many linguistic and sentiment-oriented programming
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requirements. Those requirements are going to be different in various regions of

a country like India so a universal chatbot that covers the world with glory will be
several years away.
Practice Question: Chatbots are taking the customer engagement world by

storm. Are chatbots the future of online businesses? Comment
Rise of Robotic machines-future trends in robotics

The robots haven’t just landed in the workplace—they’re expanding skills, moving
up the corporate ladder, showing awesome productivity and retention rates, and
increasingly shoving aside their human counterparts. One multi-tasker bot, from
Momentum Machines, can make (and flip) a gourmet hamburger in 10 seconds
and could soon replace an entire McDonalds crew. A manufacturing device from
Universal Robots doesn’t just solder, paint, screw, glue, and grasp—it builds new
parts for itself on the fly when they wear out or bust. Recently, Google won a
patent to start building worker robots with personalities.
As intelligent machines begin their march on labor and become more

sophisticated and specialized than first-generation cousins like Roomba or Siri,
there are concerns that AI and robotics will soon overhaul economy. Oxford
University researchers have estimated that 47 percent of U.S. jobs could be
automated within the next two decades. And if even half that number is closer to
the mark, workers are in for a rude awakening.
Technological development in artificial intelligence, computer vision, navigation,

MEMS sensor, and semiconductor technologies continue to drive innovation in
the capability, performance, autonomy, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness of
industrial and service robots. Robotics will continue to accelerate innovation,
thus disrupting and changing the paradigm of business operations in many
industries.
Trends for future::

Growth of "robot as a service.": By 2019, 30 percent of commercial service
robotic applications will be in the form of a robot-as-a-service (RaaS) business
model. This will help cut costs for robot deployment.
Emergence of the chief robotics officer: By 2019, 30 percent of leading
organizations will implement a chief robotics officer role and/or define a
robotics-specific function within the business.
An evolving competitive landscape: By 2020, organizations will have a
greater choice of vendors as new players enter the $80-billion information and
communications technology market to support robotics deployment.
Robotics will face regulation: By 2019, government entities will begin
implementing robotics-specific regulations to preserve jobs and to address
concerns about security, safety, and privacy.
Rise of the software-defined robots: By 2020, 60 percent of robots will
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depend on cloud-based software to define new skills, cognitive capabilities, and

application programs, leading to the formation of a robotics cloud marketplace.
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Arrival of the Intelligent RoboNet: By 2020, 40 percent of commercial

robots will become connected to a mesh of shared intelligence, resulting in 200
percent improvement in overall robotic operational efficiency.
Robotics for Ecommerce: By 2018, 45 percent of the 200 leading global
ecommerce and omni-channel commerce companies will deploy robotics systems
in their order fulfillment warehousing and delivery operations.
Emerging Robotics issue: Should ‘Robot tax’ imposed on companies using

robots which are replacing manual labor, in order to slow down automation &
fund other types of employment?
Augmented Reality-a digital trend

Technology is unendingly developing, and the introduction of new devices acts as
a touchstone to the landing of a totally new technological worldview. Video games
have been entertaining us for nearly 30 years, ever since Pong was introduced to
arcades in the early 1970s. Computer graphics have become much more
sophisticated since then, and game graphics are pushing the barriers of
photorealism. Now, researchers and engineers are pulling graphics out of
your television screen or computer display and integrating them into real-world
environments. This new technology, called augmented reality, blurs the line
between what's real and what's computer-generated by enhancing what we see,
hear, feel and smell.
On the spectrum between virtual reality, which creates immersive, computer-
generated environments, and the real world, augmented reality is closer to the
real world. Augmented reality adds graphics, sounds, haptic feedback and smell
to the natural world as it exists. The basic idea of augmented reality is to
superimpose graphics, audio and other sensory enhancements over a real-world
environment in real time. Both video games and cell phones are driving the
development of augmented reality.
Origin: it was Professor Thomas P. Caudell, then an analyst at Boeing, who

initially used the term 'augmented reality' in 1990. He was referring to a head-
mounted digital display that guided specialists through amassing electrical wires
in aircrafts.
Definition: Augmented reality is the interaction of superimposed graphics,

audio and other sense enhancements over a real-world environment that’s
displayed in real-time. In other words, it is a technology that layers computer-
generated enhancements atop an existing reality in order to make it more
meaningful through the ability to interact with it.
Present: 2016 is set to be the year AR ventures. Pokémon Go- The

augmented-reality (AR) game that—since its release on July 6, attracted 21
million users and became one of the most successful mobile apps ever—has been
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praised for promoting exercise, facilitating social interactions, sparking new

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interest in local landmarks, and more. Education writers and experts have

weighed in on its implications for teaching kids everything from social skills to
geography. And while it seems clear at this point that the game is a fad that has
peaked—one of the game’s biggest triumphs has, arguably, been the hope it’s
generated about the future of play. While electronic games have traditionally
caused kids to retreat to couches, here is one that did precisely the opposite.
Possible domains where AR can be used:

There are many possible domains that could benefit from the use of Augmented
Reality technology such as engineering, entertainment and education. Doctors
can examine patients while viewing superimposed medical images; children can
program their own LEGO constructions; construction engineers can use ordinary
paper engineering drawings to communicate with distant colleagues. For
instance, a project management in building and construction will be more easily
and safely carried out when site managers can virtually view and monitor work in
progress in real time through Augmented Reality markers placed on parts or
equipment being built. Furthermore it is now possible with advanced Augmented
Reality Applications to provide more authentic learning and engage learners in
ways that were never possible before. Each student can have their own unique
discovery path through real-life immersive simulations, with no time pressure
and no real consequences if mistakes are made during skills training. In addition
it could be also used in business for advertising, gaining more customers and
higher market share.
Issues & concerns:

Threats to privacy and issues of the privacy control. Walking up to a stranger
or a group of people with AR device might reveal status, Tweets, and other
personal information that may cause breache of privacy.
Regarding user experience, socially using Augmented Reality may be
inappropriate in some situations.
Spam as it is easy to imagine that spam could overwhelm the augmented world
with unwanted advertising or unwanted information of any kind.
Price – as the technology is still developing it may be quiet expensive to use it in
everyday life and it might be less accessible for small businesses.
Internet addiction- an over reliance on augmented reality could mean that
people are missing out on what's right in front of them.
Future:
Both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are on their way to changing
the way we travel the world, learn new things, do our work and interact with
others. Virtual reality has been around in various forms, but has really found its
footing in the computer gaming industry, and is also gaining new uses in
industry, health care and education. Augmented-reality glasses let you see the
real world, but can also project additional information that only the wearer can
see. The enormously popular smartphone-based game Pokemon Go is one
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example. Both technologies are ideal for learning and practicing new skills.
According to the digital industry analytics, by 2020 the revenue from VR and AR
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may reach $150 billion, with augmented reality taking the lion's share.

Practice question: Augmented Reality has become the new trendy buzzword
of 2016. Compare Virtual reality with Augmented reality. Highlight concerns
associated with augmented reality technology?
Autonomous cars-the driverless revolution

As the technology gets cheaper, the driverless car future will increasingly become
a reality. An autonomous car is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its
environment and navigating without human input. Autonomous cars can detect
surroundings using a variety of techniques such as radar, lidar, GPS, odometry,
and computer vision.
The world’s first “self-driving” taxi service has been launched in Singapore –
albeit with a human backup driver and co-pilot on board for the time being.
Several events from the last months provide a strong signal that autonomous
vehicle technology has led the auto industry to a pivotal point. Despite recent
safety concerns, Tesla, an electric-car maker, is making progress with its
Autopilot system. In 2017 Volvo, which is also working with Uber to get cars to
drive themselves, will test self-driving cars by handing them for the first time to a
select group of ordinary motorists. And in August, Ford said it would launch a
fully-autonomous car, without steering wheel or pedals, for car-sharing schemes
by 2021.
Potential advantages
➢ Average vehicle utilisation globally is reckoned to be just 5 per cent, or
little more than an hour a day. Most people reasonably see the car as an
essential feature of modern life. Yet the cost of buying, maintaining, and
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keeping a vehicle on the road is also one of the most inefficient uses of
money and physical resources known to man. Among the anticipated
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benefits of automated cars is the potential reduction in traffic

collisions (and resulting deaths and injuries and costs), caused by human-
driver errors, such as delayed reaction time, tailgating, rubbernecking, and
other forms of distracted or aggressive driving.
➢ Automated cars could also reduce labor costs and this technology would
lift constraints on occupant ability and age parameters, as it would not
matter if all the parties on board were under age, over age, blind,
distracted, intoxicated, prone to seizures, or otherwise impaired.
➢ Additional advantages could include higher speed limits; smoother
rides; increased roadway capacity; and minimized traffic congestion, due
to decreased need for safety gaps.
➢ Furthermore, new business models (such as mobility as a service) can
develop, which aim to be cheaper than car ownership by removing the cost
of the driver. Finally, the robotic car could drive unoccupied to wherever it
is required, such as to pick up passengers or to go in for maintenance
(eliminating redundant passengers)
Potential obstacles
➢ Loss of driving-related jobs. Resistance from professional drivers and
unions who perceive job losses.
➢ Gestures and non-verbal cues by police and pedestrians are not adapted to
autonomous driving
➢ Many factories will have to be completely re-tooled, rendering billions of
already sunk capital substantially obsolete and wreaking havoc in existing
supply chains.
➢ Implementation of legal framework and establishment of government
regulations for self-driving cars
➢ Disputes concerning liability
➢ Current road infrastructure may need changes for autonomous cars to
function optimally
➢ Self-driving cars could potentially be loaded with explosives and used
as bombs
➢ Autonomous cars may require very high-quality specialised maps to
operate properly.
➢ Where are the jobs going to come from for the likes of Uber’s displaced
drivers? At this stage, it is not entirely clear. Suffice it to say that the
destruction of old jobs invariably creates new ones, in this case in
millimetre-wave radar, cameras, laser radar, ultrasonics and logistics.
Driverless cars promise to transform the market in ways which the incumbents
will find bruising and difficult. Traditional automotive business models will be
stood on their heads. Once driverless, the car can theoretically be kept in
operation 24 hours a day, rather in the manner of a taxi, only without the human
driver. Cars will thus become quite widely shared, with many choosing not to own
one at all. We will need far fewer cars for the same amount of usage.
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ITER
ITER-International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ("The Way"
in Latin) is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today. In
southern France, 35 nations are collaborating to build the world's largest
tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility
of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same
principle that powers our Sun and stars.
The experimental campaign that will be carried out at ITER is crucial to
advancing fusion science and preparing the way for the fusion power plants of
tomorrow. ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy. ITER will
be the first fusion device to maintain fusion for long periods of time. And ITER
will be the first fusion device to test the integrated technologies, materials, and
physics regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based
electricity.
Objectives of project:
1) Produce 500 MW of fusion power
The world record for fusion power is held by the European tokamak JET. In 1997,
JET produced 16 MW of fusion power from a total input power of 24 MW
(Q=0.67). ITER is designed to produce a ten-fold return on energy (Q=10),
or 500 MW of fusion power from 50 MW of input power.
2) Demonstrate the integrated operation of technologies for a fusion
power plant
ITER will bridge the gap between today's smaller-scale experimental fusion
devices and the demonstration fusion power plants of the future. Scientists will
be able to study plasmas under conditions similar to those expected in a future
power plant and test technologies such as heating, control, diagnostics,
cryogenics and remote maintenance.
3) Achieve a deuterium-tritium plasma in which the reaction is
sustained through internal heating
Fusion research today is at the threshold of exploring a "burning plasma"—one in
which the heat from the fusion reaction is confined within the plasma efficiently
enough for the reaction to be sustained for a long duration. Scientists are
confident that the plasmas in ITER will not only produce much more fusion
energy, but will remain stable for longer periods of time.
4) Demonstrate the safety characteristics of a fusion device
One of the primary goals of ITER operation is to demonstrate the control of the
plasma and the fusion reactions with negligible consequences to the
environment.
FUSION
Fusion is the energy source of the Sun and stars. In the tremendous heat and
gravity at the core of these stellar bodies, hydrogen nuclei collide, fuse into
heavier helium atoms and release tremendous amounts of energy in the process.
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Twentieth-century fusion science identified the most efficient fusion reaction in

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the laboratory setting to be the reaction between two hydrogen isotopes,

deuterium (D) and tritium (T). The DT fusion reaction produces the highest
energy gain at the "lowest" temperatures. Three conditions must be fulfilled to
achieve fusion in a laboratory: very high temperature (on the order of
150,000,000° Celsius); sufficient plasma particle density (to increase the
likelihood that collisions do occur); and sufficient confinement time (to hold the
plasma, which has a propensity to expand, within a defined volume).
At extreme temperatures, electrons are separated from nuclei and a gas becomes
a plasma—often referred to as the fourth state of matter. Fusion plasmas provide
the environment in which light elements can fuse and yield energy. In a tokamak
device, powerful magnetic fields are used to confine and control the plasma.
India’s contribution:
Gandhinagar-based Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) is the nodal
organisation representing India in the ITER project. India, which has already
spent close to Rs 2,000 crore on this project is supplying nine different packages,
including cryostat, cooling water systems, vessel in-wall shielding blocks, radio
frequency heating sources, cryodistribution and cryolines, power supplies,
diagnostic neutral beam system and some of the diagnostics systems.
Challenges:
Launched in 2006, ITER has been plagued with delays and cost overruns as the
challenge of bringing six countries—the United States, China, India, Japan,
Russia, and South Korea—together with the European Union to build an
experimental reactor has proved nearly insurmountable. The latest schedule put
forth by the project’s director, French nuclear physicist Bernard Bigot, calls for
the machine to be switched on by 2025 and to actually achieve fusion only in
2035—a dozen years later than originally planned. The panel found that timing
plausible but said that the latest budget, which would add another €4.6 billion
($5.3 billion) in cost overruns to the project, was unlikely to become available.
The true cost of ITER is almost impossible to define. When the project agreement
was drawn up in 2006, all the necessary components were divided up among the
partners according to their contributions: 45% for the European Union (as host),
and 9% for each of the others. How much each partner pays to have those
components manufactured is the partner’s individual concern and is not
revealed.
Nanotechnology -Challenges, Risks and Ethical

issues
Nanotechnology is one of the hottest scientific discoveries of the present times.
This is because nanotechnology presents a lot of promise that all other treatment
methodologies before it were unable to deliver. Moreover, nanotechnology also
saw applications in other areas aside from the fields it was intended for. As a
result, the fields of applications of nanotechnology are as varied as the possible
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risks that come with it. As such, safety concerns with nanotechnology aired by
ordinary citizens and experts alike must not be ignored because it is one of the
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ways to make the technology very safe for anyone using them.
The most immediate challenge in nanotechnology is that we need to learn

more about materials and their properties at the nanoscale.
Universities and corporations across the world are rigorously studying
how atoms fit together to form larger structures. We're still learning about how
quantum mechanics impact substances at the nanoscale.
Because elements at the nanoscale behave differently than they do in their bulk
form, there's a concern that some nanoparticles could be toxic. Some
doctors worry that the nanoparticles are so small, that they could easily cross
the blood-brain barrier, a membrane that protects the brain from harmful
chemicals in the bloodstream. If we plan on using nanoparticles to coat
everything from our clothing to our highways, we need to be sure that they won't
poison us.
The significant reactivity of nanoparticles produces a negative impact at a

biological level. It is no longer the toxicity of the particle itself which must be
taken into account, but that which it conveys. The combination of these effects
with the biopersistency of particles those are difficult to detect via global analyses
risks provoking, at cell level, a loss of function, hyperactivity or a disruption in
their cycle. Such abnormal cellular responses can bring about an inflammatory
reaction which, when it persists and is self-maintaining, is liable to engender
fibroses and cancers.
Closely related to the knowledge barrier is the technical barrier. In order for
the incredible predictions regarding nanotechnology to come true, we have to
find ways to mass produce nano-size products like transistors and nanowires.
While we can use nanoparticles to build things like tennis rackets and make
wrinkle-free fabrics, we can't make really complex microprocessor chips with
nanowires yet.
There are also fears that the environment may be placed in jeopardy that
nanotechnology products may increase the pollution level in many areas at a time
when the need for environmental conservation is vigorously pursued everywhere.
For example, the production of better engines for automotives and windows for
cars may prompt car manufacturers and local dealers to wantonly discard these
parts that can possibly cause environmental nightmare with the absence of better
programs on waste disposal. Because nano particles are very small, they are very
difficult to degrade and may easily pass on from one person to another, in the
process becoming agents of ailments.
There are some hefty social concerns about nanotechnology too.

Nanotechnology may also allow us to create more powerful weapons, both
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lethal and non-lethal. Some organizations are concerned that we'll only get
around to examining the ethical implications of nanotechnology in weaponry
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after these devices are built. They urge scientists and politicians to examine

carefully all the possibilities of nanotechnology before designing increasingly

powerful weapons.
If nanotechnology in medicine makes it possible for us to enhance ourselves

physically, is that ethical? In theory, medical nanotechnology could make us
smarter, stronger and give us other abilities ranging from rapid healing to night
vision. Should we pursue such goals? Could we continue to call ourselves human,
or would we become transhuman -- the next step on man's evolutionary path?
Since almost every technology starts off as very expensive, would this mean
we'd create two races of people -- a wealthy race of modified humans and a
poorer population of unaltered people? We don't have answers to these
questions, but several organizations are urging nanoscientists to consider these
implications now, before it becomes too late. Many experts think that concerns
like grey goo and transhumans are at best premature, and probably unnecessary.
Even so, nanotechnology will definitely continue to impact us as we learn more
about the enormous potential of the nanoscale.
Nanotechnology in the Food Industry

Nanotechnology is having an impact on several aspects of the food industry, from
how food is grown to how it is packaged. Companies are developing
nanomaterials that will make a difference not only in the taste of food, but also in
food safety, and the health benefits food delivers.
Nanomaterials in Food Packaging

Use of nanomaterials in food packaging is already a reality. One example is
bottles made with nanocomposites that minimize the leakage of carbon dioxide
out of the bottle; this increases the shelf life of carbonated beverages without
having to use heavier glass bottles or more expensive cans. Another example is
food storage bins with silver nanoparticles embedded in the plastic. The silver
nanoparticles kill bacteria from any food previously stored in the bins,
minimizing harmful bacteria.
Nanosensors are being developed that can detect bacteria and other
contaminates such as salmonella on the surface of food at a packaging plant. This
will allow for frequent testing at a much lower cost than is incurred by sending
samples to a lab for analysis. There are also nanosensors being developed to
detect pesticides on fruit and vegetables.
Gold nanostructures, quantum dots (QD), carbon nanotubes, and other active
nanostructures have been or can be used as sensors of microbes or other tests for
food safety
Nanomaterials Changing Food Characteristics

Nanoparticles are being used to deliver vitamins or other nutrients in food and
beverages without affecting the taste or appearance. These nanoparticles actually
encapsulate the nutrients and carry them through the stomach into the
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bloodstream. For many vitamins this delivery method also allows a higher
percentage of the nutrients to be used by the body because, when not
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encapsulated by the nanoparticles, some nutrients would be lost in the stomach.

Nanomaterials are being developed to improve the taste, color, and texture of
foods. For example “interactive” foods are being developed that would allow you
to choose which flavor and color a piece of food has.
Finally, nanoparticle emulsions are being used in ice cream and various spreads
to improve the texture and uniformity.
Nanotechnology in Agriculture
Researchers are working on pesticides encapsulated in nanoparticles; these only
release pesticide in an insect’s stomach, which minimizes the contamination of
plants themselves. Another development being looked at is a network of
nanosensors and dispensers throughout a food crop. The sensors recognize when
a plant needs nutrients or water, before you could see any sign that the plant is
deficient. The dispensers then release fertilizer, nutrients, or water as needed,
optimizing the growth of each plant in the field one by one.
Concerns
In food industries, the main priority is quality and safety of food, so health risk
assessments in this area are essential. Since nanoparticles have entered food and
related industries, toxicology research of nanoparticles is essential. Researchers
in this area should pay special attention to the gastrointestinal absorption and
possible side-effects of nanoparticles. Nanoparticles can have serious effects on
health when they accumulate in high concentrations in tissues, eventually leading
to tissue dysfunction or damage. With the increasing use of nanomaterials,
concerns are also growing between experts but with increasing information of
nanomaterials toxicity, public have not participate in this issue. Perhaps the main
reason for contradictory information on the toxicity of nanoparticles is in terms
of characterization and tests. Therefore it is necessary to establish standard
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protocols for risk assessment.

Another area related to the use of nanoparticles in food and related industries is
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the absence of regular and systematic classification of used nanomaterials. The

method of preparation and synthesis of nanoparticles in food products must also

be classified and published. The absence of such classifications creates consumer
reluctance to use nanoproducts.
Conclusion
Nutrition and food service is one of the biggest industries to be affected by
nanotechnology in all areas, changing even the nature of food itself. Whether it’s
farming, food packaging, or the prevention of microbial contamination the major
food industries have seen dramatic changes because of nanotechnology. Different
nanomaterials such as nanopowders, nanotubes, nano-fibers, quantum dots, and
metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles are globally produced in large quantities
due to their broad applicability in food-related industries. Because of the unique
properties of nanostructures and nanomaterials – such as a large surface area,
high activity, and small size, there is some concern about the potential for
harmful adverse effects of used nanomaterials on health or the environment.
However, because of tremendous advances in different industries, this concern
may be unnecessary. To make full use of nanotechnology in the food and related
industries, we must have a thorough understanding of nanomaterials.
Zika
➢ The Zika virus was first discovered in monkey in Uganda in 1947; its
name comes from the Zika forest where it was first discovered. It is
native mainly to tropical Africa, with outbreaks in Southeast Asia and the
Pacific Islands. It showed up in Brazil last year and has since been seen in
many Latin American countries and Caribbean islands.
➢ Transmission: Aedes aegypti mosquito bite
➢ Zika affected nations: Latin America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,
Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras,
Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela. In the Caribbean:
Barbados, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, St Martin and Puerto Rico,
Cape Verde and Samoa
➢ Concerns: In Brazil, there's been mounting evidence linking Zika
infection in pregnant women to a rare birth defect called microcephaly,
in which a newborn's head is smaller than normal and the brain may not
have developed properly.
➢ Treatment: There is no specific medicine and there hasn't been a vaccine
developed for it
➢ Control: Individuals can protect themselves from mosquito bites by using
insect repellents, and wearing long sleeves and long pants — especially
during daylight, when the mosquitoes tend to be most active. Eliminating
breeding spots and controlling mosquito populations can help prevent the
spread of the virus.
DENGUE
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➢ The dengue is a viral fever which is caused due to the bite of mosquito
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known as Aedes aegypti

➢ Aedes has black and white stripes on its body, legs and wings and is also
known as Tiger Mosquito
➢ Unlike other mosquitoes, Aedes Aegypti, the main vector for dengue, bites
during the day.
➢ Aedes breeds inside houses or surroundings of houses. It lays its eggs in
clean water collections like coolers, water containers, overhead water
tanks, trays of flower pots, flower vases, trays of refrigerators, discarded
utensils and tyres etc. Normally, it takes 7-10 days to develop into an adult
mosquito from an egg
➢ The virus is transmitted to human beings after the bite of the female
Aedes mosquito. Fever is witnessed 4-7 days after the bite
OTHER DISEASES TRANSMITTED BY AEDES:

➢ Yellow fever, Chikungunya, Rift Valley fever
SYMPTOMS:
➢ Dengue normally manifests as acute fever which can be accompanied by
severe headache, pain behind eyes, pain on movement of neck, severe
body and joint ache
➢ Patient can complain of rigors and chills in some cases. Some cases can
have symptoms of nausea and vomiting
➢ In severe cases, the patient can have bleeding from mouth, nose, anus or
other body parts. Small pinpoint red dots like rash are also seen in dengue
fever
DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT:

➢ It is normally presumed that platelets are the only test for dengue, but this
is not true. Platelets get decreased in many other viral fevers and other
medical conditions
➢ Dengue fever cases normally recover in 4-7 days of illness. Few cases
having complications like bleeding or involvement of other organs may
require hospital admission
➢ Most cases can be treated at home with a watch on the symptoms. It is
important to know that all patients of dengue fever do not bleed and do
not require platelets
➢ Aspirin and Ibuprofen should not be given to a patient of dengue.
Paracetamol is the drug of choice for fever in dengue cases
PREVENTIVE MEASURES:
➢ The only method to reduce the transmission of dengue virus is to control
vector mosquitoes and protect against mosquitoes bites.
➢ All coolers, water tanks, trays, flower vases and drums should be emptied
and cleaned to prevent breeding of mosquitoes
➢ Prevent water accumulation inside or near houses and establishments
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➢ Wire mesh should be fitted on windows and doors in houses and offices
➢ Full-sleeved clothes should be worn during daytime
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➢ Spray, repellents should be used for prevention of mosquito bite

➢ Improving community participation and mobilization for sustained vector

control
➢ Disposing of solid waste properly and removing artificial man-made
habitats
Severe dengue (also known as dengue haemorrhagic fever) is found in

tropical and sub-tropical locations in most Asian and Latin American
countries. In the past 50 years, incidence has increased 30-fold with
increasing geographical expansion to new countries and, in the present
decade, from urban to rural settings. More than 2.5 billion people – over 40%
of the world’s population – are now at risk from dengue. About 2.5% of those
affected die.
Bedaquiline
➢ India took a huge step forward against the rising burden of drug resistant
TB with the Government introducing a brand new class of drugs
discovered after a research of 40 years. Called Bedaquiline, the new anti-
TB drug, will be available to patients of drug resistant TB at six centres
across India.
➢ Bedaquiline introduction will help Government’s “End TB by 2030”
drive as it improves treatment outcomes. The current treatment success
rate in Multi Drug Resistant TB (of which India has the highest global
burden) is under 50 per cent. A major reason for suboptimal outcome is
additional resistance to the most important second line TB drug available
in India – Fluoroquinolone.
➢ India sees 72,000 new cases of multi drug resistant TB annually and 2,700
cases of new extreme drug resistant TB cases, which are very hard and
expensive to treat. Bedaquiline will be given to patients who have started
showing resistance to second line TB drugs. It will cost Rs 1 lakh per
patient per year. The initial 600 doses are being given by Johnson and
Johnson under its compassionate use policy and the latter consignment
will come from USAID on donation. Bedaquiline will be available only
in the public sector to prevent its misuse.
TEIXOBACTIN
➢ In a massive breakthrough, scientists have created the first new
antibiotic in more than three decades, Teixobactin, that can treat
many common bacterial infections such as tuberculosis, septicemia and C
Diff or clostridium difficile colitis.
➢ The discovery comes at a time when World Health Organization has sent
out warnings that humanity is staring at a post-antibiotic era when
common infections will no longer have a cure.
➢ The first antibiotic, Penicillin, was discovered by Alexander Fleming
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in 1928, and more than 100 compounds have been found since then, but
no new class has been found since 1987.
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➢ Most antibiotics target bacterial proteins, but bugs can become resistant
by evolving new kinds of proteins. What's unique about Teixobactin is that
it launches a double attack on the building blocks of bacterial cell walls.
NEW ART REGULATION (Surrogacy) Bill

Renting a womb will soon be a crime in India with the Cabinet approving a law
banning commercial surrogacy and permitting only altruistic surrogacy in the
interest of infertile couples. Altruistic surrogacy means engaging a close relative
as a surrogate in a legal contract with the intending parents with no money
involved. The draft surrogacy Bill, to be passed in the winter session of
Parliament, allows surrogacy services only for married Indian couples wedded for
five years with foreigners, NRIs, persons of Indian origin (PIO) holding overseas
Indian citizenship cards, single parents, unmarried persons and those from the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community kept out.
Even married Indian couples with a previous biological or adopted child won’t be
allowed to engage a surrogate. Inspired by UK’s surrogacy legislation, the Indian
version defines a surrogate as a “close female relative” of the intending couple,
specifying that a surrogate can only be a married woman with at least one child of
her own. The Bill says married Indian couples will be able to engage a surrogate
only after they have exhausted all medical options of child-bearing. They will
have to produce a certificate saying either is medically unfit to bear a child.
The Bill says children born from surrogacy contracts will have all rights
(including inheritance) which a biological child has. Abandoning a child will be a
crime punishable with a Rs 10-lakh fine and jail up to 10 years. The Bill mandates
registration of surrogacy clinics.
Main proposals:
➢ Only altruistic surrogacy permitted for married Indian couples
➢ The couple must be married for five years, the husband must be aged at
least 26, wife 23
➢ They must get an infertility certificate after failing to conceive for five
years
➢ Get parentage order from district magistrate & health insurance for
surrogate mother
➢ Sign a legal contract with the surrogate mother accepting terms of the new
Bill
➢ A close relative alone can be surrogate; single parents, the unwed & LGBT
persons barred
REASON FOR BANNING FOREIGNERS:

➢ Experts involved in drafting of the law say the decision on banning
foreigners from accessing infertility treatment in India is driven by
interests of children born out of such arrangements.
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➢ There have been instances of foreigner couples abandoning children born

to Indian surrogates due to a range of issues, including disability or birth
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of twins. An Australian couple recently refused to accept a child with Down

syndrome.
➢ Earlier in 2009, the Supreme Court had stayed a Gujarat High Court order
granting Indian citizenship to twins born to a German couple from a
surrogate based in Anand, the surrogacy hotspot of India. Germany had
then refused visas to these children as it doesn’t legalise surrogacy. India
denied them citizenship for want of a law in this respect.
DIFFERENCE B/W COMMERCIAL & ALTRUISTIC SURROGACY:

➢ Commercial surrogacy: A process by which an individual or couple
pays a fee to a woman in exchange for her carrying & delivering a baby. At
birth, the child is turned over to the individual or couple, either privately
or through a legal adoption process. Russia, the Ukraine and some US
states are among those that also allow commercial surrogacy.
➢ Altruistic surrogacy: A process by which a person bears a child for an
infertile woman or couple without any sort of monetary gain in return.
Allowed in Canada, NZ, Greece, the Netherlands etc.
ARGUMENTS AGAINST COMMERCIAL SURROGACY:

➢ Womb seen as a market
➢ Commercial surrogates are exploited
➢ There are class divisions & racial divisions between surrogates, egg donors
and intended parents
➢ Neither the surrogates nor the intending parents open up easily because
they fear a social backlash.
COMMERCIAL SURROGACY IN INDIA:

➢ The first surrogate baby in India was born in 1994. Commercial surrogacy
has been legal in India since 2002.
➢ The Supreme Court in the 2008 Manji case held that commercial
surrogacy was permissible in India.
➢ India is emerging as a leader in international surrogacy and a sought after
destination in surrogacy-related fertility tourism. Indian surrogates have
been increasingly popular with fertile couples in industrialized nations
because of the relatively low cost. Indian clinics are at the same time
becoming more competitive, not just in the pricing, but in the hiring and
retention of Indian females as surrogates. Clinics charge patients roughly a
third of the price compared with going through the procedure in the UK.
➢ The Artificial Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill, first proposed
in 2008, has gone through three avatars, but is yet to be tabled in
Parliament. This proposed Bill covers several areas of concern, but needs
updating and tweaking before it can be tabled. Even as the Bill is pending,
it seems counterproductive to impose a ban on surrogacy without
understanding the issues at stake.
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➢ A sudden and arbitrary ban on commercial surrogacy will hurt all the
stakeholders in this multi-billion rupee industry, particularly children who
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are at the core of the issue.

➢ Embryonic human lives, being gestated in the safe wombs of alternate

mothers, could be in jeopardy if commercial surrogacy is suddenly and
abruptly made illegal.
WHAT MAKES INDIA ATTRACIVE FOR FOREIGNERS SEEKING A

CHILD?
➢ Cheaper than other countries
➢ Mushrooming of INF clinics
➢ No regulatory framework
➢ Availability of wiling women
MORAL DIMENSION OF THE ISSUE:

➢ From surrogate mother perspective, there is nothing morally or ethically
wrong because the babies are conceived through “injection” (embryo
implant) and not through sexual intercourse. Some of the surrogates were
poor, some middle class, some illiterate, some educated. They belonged to
all communities… their need for money is what linked them.
➢ For the intending parents, surrogacy is a boon which gives them the child
they never thought they could have. For this they are willing to pay any
amount and go to any lengths to protect and nurture the surrogate
carrying the baby for them.
➢ For the fertility specialists, this is the job they have been trained to do.
➢ The problem lies with the bogus embryologists and doctors, the agents and
touts who lure and cheat surrogates, as well as intending parents. They are
the exploiters.
NATIONAL BIOTECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

STRATEGY 2015-2020
➢ The National Biotechnology Development Strategy 2015-20 was unveiled
recently by the Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences.
OBJECTIVES:
➢ The National Biotechnology Development Strategy 2015-20 aims to
establish India as a world-class bio-manufacturing hub.
➢ It intends to launch a major mission, backed with significant investments,
for the creation of new biotech products, create a strong infrastructure for
R&D and commercialization, and empower India’s human resources
scientifically and technologically.
➢ It aims to turn the sector into a US$ 100 billion industry with focus in
areas of healthcare, food and nutrition, clean energy and education.
➢ It is aimed at ensuring strategic and focused investment in building
human capital by setting up a Life Science and Biotechnology Education
Council which will spearhead the initiative.
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➢ Research will be intensified in the field of vaccines, humane genome,

infectious and chronic diseases, crop science, animal agriculture and aqua
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culture, food and nutrition, environmental management and technologies

for clean energy.
KEY ELEMENTS OF STRATEGY:

➢ Building a Skilled Workforce and Leadership
➢ Enhance Research opportunities in basic, disciplinary and inter-
disciplinary sciences
➢ Encourage use-inspired discovery research
➢ Nurturing innovation, translational capacity and entrepreneurship
➢ Ensuring a transparent, efficient and globally best Regulatory system and
communication strategy
➢ Biotechnology cooperation- Fostering global and national alliances
➢ Strengthen Institutional Capacity with redesigned governance models
THE STEM CELL DEBATE

Stem cell research is often in the news both for its involvement in scientific
breakthrough and the controversy surrounding its use. Stem cell therapies are
not new. Doctors have been performing bone marrow stem cell transplants for
decades. But when scientists learned how to remove stem cells from human
embryos in 1998, both excitement and controversy ensued. The excitement was
due to the huge potential these cells have in curing human disease. The
controversy centered on the moral implications of destroying human embryos.
Political leaders began to debate over how to regulate and fund research
involving human embryonic stem (hES) cells. Newer breakthroughs may bring
this debate to an end. In 2006 scientists learned how to stimulate a patient's own
cells to behave like embryonic stem cells. These cells are reducing the need for
human embryos in research and opening up exciting new possibilities for stem
cell therapies.
THE ETHICAL QUESTIONS:

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Until recently, the only way to get pluripotent stem cells for research was to
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remove the inner cell mass of an embryo and put it in a dish. The thought of

destroying a human embryo can be unsettling, even if it is only five days old.
Stem cell research thus raised difficult questions:
▪ Does life begin at fertilization, in the womb, or at birth?
▪ Is a human embryo equivalent to a human child?
▪ Does a human embryo have any rights?
▪ Might the destruction of a single embryo be justified if it provides a cure
for a countless number of patients?
▪ Since ES cells can grow indefinitely in a dish and can, in theory, still grow
into a human being, is the embryo really destroyed?
With alternatives to hES cells now available, the debate over stem cell research is
becoming increasingly irrelevant. But ethical questions regarding hES cells may
not entirely go away. For now, some human embryos will still be needed for
research. iPS cells are not exactly the same as hES cells, and hES cells still
provide important controls: they are a gold standard against which the
"stemness" of other cells is measured.
Some experts believe it's wise to continue the study of all stem cell types, since
we're not sure yet which one will be the most useful for cell replacement
therapies. An additional ethical consideration is that iPS cells have the potential
to develop into a human embryo, in effect producing a clone of the donor. Many
nations are already prepared for this, having legislation in place that bans human
cloning.
Q "Embryonic stem cell research is at the leading edge of a series of moral

hazards,” Elucidate.
XDR-TB
➢ XDR-TB, an abbreviation for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, is a
form of TB which is resistant to at least four of the core anti-TB drugs.
XDR-TB involves resistance to the two most powerful anti-TB drugs,
isoniazid and rifampicin, also known as multidrug-resistance (MDR-
TB), in addition to resistance to any of fluoroquinolones and to at least one
of three injectable second-line drugs
➢ XDR-TB patients can be cured, but with the current drugs available, the
likelihood of success is much smaller than in patients with ordinary TB or
even MDR-TB. Cure depends on the extent of the drug resistance, the
severity of the disease and whether the patient's immune system is
compromised. Effective treatment requires that a good selection of
second-line drugs is available to clinicians
INDIA FREE OF MATERNAL, NEONATAL TETANUS

➢ In what the WHO described as a momentous public health feat, India has
eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus (MNT) which until a few years
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ago was claiming two lakh neonatal (within the first 28 days of birth)
deaths annually.
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➢ India alone accounts for 22 per cent of 6.3 million annual under five
deaths globally and 16 per cent of the 2.89 lakh maternal deaths globally.
Over half (52 per cent) of under five deaths at home happen at the
neonatal stage, which is why the MNT feat is critical.
➢ The elimination of neonatal tetanus is defined as less than one case in
1,000 live births in every district of the country and reflects improved
institutional deliveries (now 75 per cent for India) and clean umbilical
cord practices.
➢ The disease occurs in newborns through infection of the unhealed
umbilical stump when it is cut with a non-sterile instrument. Maternal
tetanus is considered eliminated once neonatal tetanus elimination has
been achieved. In India, the Health Ministry has evidence of cow dung
application to cords bring a major source of tetanus infection in newborns.
Designer babies
Designer babies - genetically modified for beauty, intelligence or to be free of
disease - have long been a topic of science fiction. Rapid progress in genetics is
making "designer babies" more likely and society needs to be prepared.
A designer baby is a baby that is the result of genetic screening or genetic
modification. Embryos may be screened prior to implantation, or possibly gene
therapy techniques could be used to create desired traits in a child.
Definition: The colloquial term "designer baby" refers to a baby whose genetic
makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in
vitro fertilization to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or
characteristics. In simpler terms, using biotechnology to choose what type of
baby you want. Latest research is making designer babies a reality now, using
technology developed originally for use in animals.
Trait selection: Embryo screening involves a process called pre-implantation

genetic diagnosis (PGD). Embryos are created by in-vitro fertilization and grown
to the eight-cell stage, at which point one or two cells are removed. Scientists
then examine the DNA of these cells for defects, and only normal embryos are
replaced in the womb.
Three-parent baby-a step towards designer babies: Three-parent babies

are human offspring with three genetic parents, created through a specialized
form of In vitro fertilisation in which the future baby's mitochondrial DNA comes
from a third party. The procedure is intended to prevent mitochondrial diseases
including muscular dystrophy and some heart and liver conditions. It is the
subject of considerable controversy in the field of bioethics. The world’s first
three-parent baby has been born in Mexico with the help a controversial new
fertility technique that incorporates DNA from three people, and is reported to be
healthy at five months of age.
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Pros
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Although there are many questions of if genetically modifying babies is ethical

and for the moral reason, there are many positives to this type of treatment:
➢ Reduces risk of genetic diseases
➢ Reduces risk of inherited medical conditions
➢ Keep pace with others doing it
➢ Better chance the child will succeed in life
➢ Better understanding of genetics
➢ Increased life span
➢ Can give child genes that the parents do not carry
➢ Prevent next generation of family from getting characteristics/diseases
Cons
The process of creating a “designer baby” is often questioned because of its shaky
moral platform. Though there are certainly some positive things that can be
obtained from the use of genetic engineering used on unborn babies, but it is
often wondered if parents will have the “right” reasons to genetically modify their
baby, or if reasoning will become more superficial. Some of the cons associated
with the genetic engineering of babies:
➢ Termination of embryos
➢ Could create a gap in society
➢ Possibility of damage to the gene pool
➢ Baby has no choice in the matter
➢ Genes often have more than one use
➢ Geneticists are not perfect
➢ Loss of Individuality
➢ Other children in family could be affected by parent's decision
➢ Only the rich can afford it
It has also been suggested that if designer babies were created through genetic
engineering, that this could have deleterious effects on the human gene pool.
There are risks associated with genetic modifications to any organism. New
diseases may be introduced accidentally. Safety is a major concern when it comes
to the gene editing and mitochondrial transfer. Problems with the gene editing
may not appear until after the child with edited genes is born.
Where should India draw the line on gene editing?

A response is necessary, because the tools to modify human embryos are
becoming simpler, more accurate, and widely available around the world. With
burgeoning biotechnological capabilities, scientists in India could potentially
perform experiments similar to the ones performed in China, or other
experiments that might lead to gene editing in human embryos. In 2001, as
described in the British Medical Journal, a national bio ethics panel in India said
that scientists may harvest human embryos for re search before day 14 of
gestation with the in formed consent of the donor. All projects would have to be
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approved by the national bio ethics panel, and researchers would have to share
any commercial benefits that emerge from embryonic stem cell lines with the
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donor.

The Indian Council for Medical Research, and other bio ethics panels in the
country are performing an admirable task of re-evaluating these guidelines in the
light of new gene editing technologies. But this needs to be a national and public
conversation. What moral precepts should guide us as we think about changing
the genetic material of our children? Where does our culture, or history, force us
to draw strong lines? The context is especially important, because the desire for
genetic intervention exists in this country. In parts of India, crude technologies of
genetic diagnosis through amniocentesis (and other methods) have reportedly
resulted in the selective abortion of female fetus. The impact of genetic diagnosis
remains unclear, but the overall skew in the gender ratio in parts of India is
striking: about 850 females to every 1,000 males in Punjab and Haryana. The
shift towards male children in these states may underscore a more general
aspiration to use interventions -genetic or otherwise -to produce more "desirable"
children.
Guiding principles for the future

➢ First, genetic interventions should only be used to alleviate
extraordinary suffering -that is, their role should be restricted to
diseases that devastate human beings.
➢ Second: these interventions should be used on genes that are clearly
implicated in diseases, and not genes where the link to the illness is
weak or speculative (and certainly not used to tamper with genes that
purportedly influence height or intelligence, about which we know very
little).
➢ And third, and most important: the interventions should not be carried
out without state mandate or state supervision.
These principles might be imagined as a "safe triangle" within which genetic

interventions on humans may still be performed -while the Indian public
considers future policies in this arena. Until a time that a consensus is reached,
Indian scientists might also wish to join the proposed international moratorium
on gene editing on human embryos.
Brain fingerprinting
Brain fingerprinting is a controversial technique that is advocated as a way to
identify a terrorist or other dangerous person by measuring the "brainprint" of
that person when shown a particular body of writing or an image that was
previously familiar. Brain fingerprinting is a forensic science technique that
uses electroencephalography (EEG) to determine whether specific information is
stored in a subject's brain. It consists of the measuring and recording a person's
electrical brainwaves and their brain response, which is known as P300-
MERMER ("Memory and Encoding Related Multifaceted
Electroencephalographic Response"), to words, phrases, or pictures on a
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computer screen. Brain fingerprinting was invented by Lawrence Farwell.

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Applications:
Brain fingerprinting has two primary applications.

➢ First, it is used in detecting whether information about a specific crime,
terrorist act, or incident is stored in the brain. Brain fingerprinting can be
viewed as a modern, and more accurate, lie detection test. The guilty, since
he has committed the crime, has the details of the crime in his memory.
However, the innocent does not have the details in his memory. Brain
fingerprinting is a test of whether the details are present in the memory or
not. If they are, then the person is guilty, otherwise innocent.
➢ Second, it is used to determine whether a subject has a specific type of
knowledge, expertise, or training, such as information specific to FBI
agents, ISIL-trained terrorists, or bomb-makers.
Limitations:
Although brain fingerprinting detects brain responses that reveal what
information is stored in the subject's brain, it does not detect how that
information got there. As a result, if a suspect knows everything that the
investigators know about the crime for some legitimate reason, then the test
cannot produce incriminating results. Several situations characterize this
problem:
1. If a suspect acknowledges being at the crime scene but claims to be a witness
instead of a perpetrator, then the fact that he knows details about the crime
would not be incriminating.
2. If a suspect and an alleged victim—say, of an alleged sexual assault—agree on
the details of what events occurred, but disagree on the intent of the parties, then
the test will not be conclusive, because brain fingerprinting detects only
information and not intent.
Another situation where brain fingerprinting is not applicable is one where

the authorities have no information about what crime may have taken
place. For example, if an individual simply disappears under suspicious
circumstances, but no information is known, then the authorities could not
produce any probe stimuli, and it would be impossible to develop a test.
Similarly, brain fingerprinting is not applicable for general screening of
undesirable actions. If the investigators have no idea of what acts an
individual may have committed, then there is no way to structure the appropriate
stimuli to detect the telltale knowledge that would result from committing such
acts. 37
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Indian context:
The P300 is not the only brainwave used by brain fingerprinting technologies. In
1997, Indian neuroscientist Champadi Raman Mukundan developed a different
technique called the Brain Electrical Oscillatory Signature (Beos) test,
which measures the presence of remembrance through a variety of subtle changes
in brain activity data. It’s this Beos test that is now used in India.
Police in India have used brain fingerprinting since 2003. Trust in the technology
is so high, in fact, that it is already playing a role in separating the guilty from the
innocent, particularly in India. Officers argue that it helps an overloaded
workforce augment their evidence and speed up the often tortuously drawn-out
process of conviction. The results of the brain fingerprinting test may not be
admissible in the courts, but the technique helps investigating agencies find clues
in complicated cases.
CLOUD SEEDING
Cloud seeding is an artificial way to create rainfall. It is done either by using
artillery to fire shells containing rain-inducing chemicals such as silver iodide
into the cloud cover or by dropping chemicals from aircraft.
Cloud seeding, a form of weather modification, is a difficult way of attempting to

change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds, by dispersing
substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, which alter
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the microphysical processes within the cloud. The usual intent is to increase
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precipitation (rain or snow), but hail and fog suppression are also widely
practiced in airports.
Principle of Artificial rain:

In the troposphere, the temperature of the atmosphere descends with altitude.
Therefore the clouds in the troposphere are lower in temperature as they rise in
altitude and vice versa. When the temperature of a cloud is above 0 °C, the cloud
is called a warm cloud; when it is below 0 °C it is called a cold cloud. Inside a
warm cloud, small water drops will become large ones through collision and
coalescence, and will finally break the buoyancy of the cloud and fall out of its
bottom to become rainfall to the ground. Likewise, inside a cold cloud, ice
crystals can also grow to a size where they can break the buoyancy and fall out of
the cloud's bottom, and when they pass through a temperature of 0 °C they will
melt and become rain drops, also providing the ground with rain. When the water
drops in a cloud are too small or there are not enough ice crystals to create
rainfall, we can use artificial ways to create ice crystals or help small water drops
grow, and thereby facilitate the formation of precipitation. This human
influenced weather phenomenon is called artificial rain.
Chemicals used:
The most common chemicals used for cloud seeding include silver
iodide, potassium iodide and dry ice (solid carbon dioxide). Introduction of
a substance such as silver iodide, which has a crystalline structure similar to that
of ice, will induce freezing nucleation.
Application:
The largest cloud seeding system is in the People's Republic of China. They
believe that it increases the amount of rain over several
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increasingly arid regions, including its capital city, Beijing, by firing silver
iodide rockets into the sky where rain is desired. There is even political strife
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caused by neighboring regions that accuse each other of "stealing rain" using
cloud seeding. The Chinese government has used cloud seeding technology in the
past not only to create artificial rain but also to clear air pollution using
induced precipitation. Most famously, the technology was apparently used to
keep the skies over Beijing blue during the 2008 August Olympics.
Should India emulate China’s approach to tackle air pollution?

Delhi is considering using cloud seeding to tackle the unprecedented smog
choking it. It helps increase precipitation and disperses fog. However, caution
must be exercised before emulating China’s approach.
First, it isn’t clear how often authorities in Beijing use the technology to clear
smog or whether it is effective at times of chart-busting pollution.
Second, the technique is only successful if the conditions are conducive to rain;
there must be a cloud there to begin with so that enough moisture could be
generated for rain. In this autumn season, when most clouds have already moved
towards Himalayas to cause snowing there, it would be difficult. Delhi skies are
dry now.
And third, experts warn of secondary air and water pollution as an outcome of
the chemicals used in the process – the chemicals used in creating rain and
clearing the air could in turn leave behind residues of pollution. With so much
pollution in the air already (eg SO2, NO2), if we make it rain right now, it could
lead to acid rains.
New National Health Policy (NHP 2017)

Last heath policy formulated: NHP 2002
Objective: Achieving universal health coverage & delivering quality health care
services to all at affordable cost.
Highlights:
1. Promises to increase public spending on health to 2.5 per cent of the GDP
2. Providing assured services in the form of free drugs and diagnostics
3. Allocating major proportion (upto two-thirds or more) of resources to primary
care followed by secondary and tertiary care.
4. Mainstreaming the potential of AYUSH & Yoga would also be introduced
much more widely in school and work places
5. National health cards to be issued
6. Proposes regular tracking of Disability Adjusted Life Years Index to
measure the burden of diseases by major categories until 2020.
7. It proposes two beds per 1,000 of the population to enable access within the
golden hour (the first 60 minutes after a traumatic injury).
New Institutions proposed:

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1. National Healthcare Standards Organisation: to rate medical facilities

2. Tribunal to adjudicate people’s complaints.
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3. National Digital Health Authority (NDHA): to regulate, develop and

deploy digital health across the continuum of care.
Key targets:
1. Increase Life Expectancy at birth from 67.5 to 70 by 2025.
2. Reduce Under Five Mortality to 23 by 2025.
3. Reduce infant mortality rate to 28 by 2019.
4. Achieve the global 2020 HIV target (also termed 90:90:90; 90 per cent of all
people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90 per cent of all people diagnosed
with HIV infection receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90 per cent of all
people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression)
5. Eliminating leprosy by 2018, kala-azar and lymphatic filariasis by 2017, TB by
2025
6. To reduce premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes
or chronic respiratory diseases by 25 per cent by 2025.
NHP 2017 shifts away from sick care approach of NHP 2002 to preventive
health. In addition, it recognizes, in a first, the need to mainstream Indian
systems of medicine. The NHP 2017 also drops the proposal of health cess to fund
the sector on the lines of education cess. India failed to achieve the goal of 2 pc
GDP public spending on health in the last National Health Policy envisaged in
2002. Health spending annually pushes 60 million Indians into poverty. The
policy seeks to issue national health cards to people but doesn’t address privacy
concerns the proposal raises. Equally, the policy is silent on health as a
fundamental right, something its draft had provided.
Biosimilars versus Generics

Biosimilars are capturing big pharma's attention. The opportunities for
biosimilars are huge for both manufacturers and consumers. The upside of
biosimilars is that consumers can get biologics for cheaper.
Biosimilar: A biosimilar is a biologic medical product which is almost an

identical copy of an original product that is manufactured by a different
company. Biosimilars are officially approved versions of original "innovator"
products, and can be manufactured when the original product's patent expires.
Reference to the innovator product is an integral component of the approval.
Comparison with Generics:

Biologics are 200 to 1,000 times the size of a small molecule (generic) drug,
and far more structurally complex. Additionally, biologics and biosimilars
are manufactured in living cells, then extracted and purified, whereas small
molecule drugs and generics are manufactured purely via chemical synthesis.
These fundamental differences in complexity and large-scale manufacturing are
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at the core of why biosimilars are not equal to generics.

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Biologics and biosimilars are produced in living cells with a multi-step process.
Initially, a basic protein structure is “translated” from a DNA sequence and then
modifications, including changes and additions, are made to that basic protein
structure. These later changes and additions are called post-translational
modifications. The impact of post-translational modifications on a product is
similar to the impact of a farming environment on growing tomatoes. The look
and taste of the same type of tomatoes will vary in different farm environments
because of the quality of the soil, use of fertilizers, type of irrigation and weather
elements like rain, air, sunlight. Similarly, differences in biological systems (e.g.,
type of living cell with slightly different cellular environments) used to
manufacture biosimilars may cause different types and levels of modifications,
which in turn may affect the quality, safety or effectiveness of the product.
So, whereas a generic can be identical to a small molecule reference product,

biosimilars cannot and are not required to be exactly like the biologic
reference product. Given the expected differences, regulatory authorities have
outlined robust data requirements to demonstrate similarity. Biosimilar
manufacturers will generally need to generate data from lab testing, non-clinical
testing and clinical testing to show that the biosimilar they have developed will
provide the same therapeutic benefit and risks to patients as the reference
product.
PROPERTIES GENERICS BIOSIMILARS

SIZE Small Large
MOLECULAR WEIGHT <500-900 Daltons 4000 to >140,000 Daltons
STRUCTURE Simple and well-defined Complex with potential
structural variations
MANUFACTURING Predictable chemical Specialized biological
process to make process to make similar
identical copy copy
COMPLEXITY Easy to fully Difficult to characterize
characterize due to heterogeneity
STABILITY Relatively stable Sensitive to storage and
handling conditions
ADVERSE IMMUNE Lower potential Higher potential
REACTION
MANUFACTURING ≤ 50 ≥ 250
QUALITY TESTS
APPROVAL Small clinical trials in Large clinical trials in
REQUIREMENTS healthy volunteers patients
Biologics- challenges and concerns

Biotechnology derived medicinal products are presently the best characterized
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biologics with considerable production and clinical experience, and have

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revolutionized the treatment of some of the most difficult-to-treat diseases,

prolonging and improving the quality of life and patient care. They are also
currently one of the fastest growing segments of the pharmaceutical industry
market. The critical challenge that the biopharmaceutical industry is facing is
the expiry of patents for the first generation of biopharmaceuticals, mainly
recombinant DNA derived products, such as interferons, growth hormone and
erythropoetin. The question that immediately arose was how should such
copies of the originator products be licensed, bearing in mind that they
are highly complex biological molecules produced by equally complex biological
production processes with their inherent problem of biological variability.
Copying biologics is much more complex than copying small molecules
and the critical issue was how to handle the licensing of products if relying in part
on data from an innovator product.
Key Concerns
Safety is a priority for the development of all medicines, but biologics raise
safety considerations above and beyond those of chemical drugs. This is because
biologics are more structurally complex medicines than chemical drugs, and even
slight changes in their manufacture can cause undetected changes in the
biological composition of the product. These changes can in turn affect the safety
and effectiveness of the product in patients.
Biologics are made by genetically engineering living cells to become miniature

factories producing the desired molecules (proteins). These living cells are
inherently variable and susceptible to slight changes in their environment that
can significantly alter the proteins they are engineered to produce. Because no
two living cell lines are identical, no two biologics manufacturing processes have
identical starting materials or proceed in the same way. A follow-on biologic
manufacturer that uses different starting materials and a different process will
produce a product that is different from the innovative product. In addition, the
complexity of biologics currently makes it impossible to show in the laboratory
that one biological product will work the same as another in patients. The effects
of the differences between a follow-on and its respective innovator product can
only be determined by subjecting the follow-on biologic to substantial clinical
testing in patients to prove that it is safe and effective. Therefore it is not
possible to have a "generic" of a branded biologic.
Biologics are expensive to produce and costly for payers and many patients,
depending on their insurance coverage.
Immunogenicity is an important concern regarding the safety of biologics. This

occurs when our bodies treat a protein as if it is a foreign substance and try to
attack the protein with antibodies. Unlike chemical drugs, all biologics have the
potential to stimulate antibody production in patients and such responses
are highly unpredictable. Sometimes the antibodies produced in response to a
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biologic have no effect. Other times they bind and inactivate the biologic, causing
disease progression. In still other cases, they can bind to and inactivate a patient's
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naturally occurring protein, which means that the patient may be left with no
options other than regular blood transfusions.
Biopharmaceuticals are drug products containing biotechnology-derived proteins

as active substances, and have revolutionised the treatment of many diseases. A
number of biopharmaceutical patents are due to expire in the next few years, or
have already expired. The subsequent production of follow-on products, or
'biosimilars' has aroused interest within the pharmaceutical industry as
biosimilar manufacturers strive to obtain part of an already large and rapidly-
growing market. The potential opportunity for price reductions versus the
originator biopharmaceuticals remains to be determined, as the advantage of a
slightly cheaper price may be outweighed by the hypothetical increased risk of
side-effects from biosimilar molecules that are not exact copies of their
originators.
Stent Price Regulation

In a major relief to lakhs of cardiac patients, the government has cut prices of
life-saving coronary stents by up to 85 percent. The National Pharmaceutical
Pricing Authority (NPPA), the Centre's drug pricing wing, has fixed the ceiling
price of bare metal stents (BMS) at Rs 7,260 against their previous MRP of Rs
45,000. Drug eluting stents (DES) and biodegradable stents cannot be sold at
more than Rs 29,600 as against their previous MRP range of Rs 80,000 to Rs
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1,21,000. These caps mark 83.8 per cent price reduction in the BMS category
and 75.53 per cent reduction for DES stents which release drugs into arteries long
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after the implant. DES is preferred over BMS as the latter are known to cause

a higher recurrence rate of blocked arteries, thereby raising the risk of heart
attacks.
NPPA's notification says stent price reduction will apply immediately and will
cover stents in trade channels. Stent manufacturers will have to revise prices
downward and hospitals billing stents directly to patients will have to reimburse
overcharged amounts. The NPPA stent pricing will apply for a year initially.
Capped prices are, however, exclusive of VAT and other taxes. Since most states
have 5 per cent VAT on stents, BMS stents will cost around Rs 7,623 per unit and
DES around Rs 31,080. NPPA’s notification follows the Health Ministry’s 2016
move to include coronary stents in the National List of Essential Medicines
which automatically come under drug pricing. The government has also made it
mandatory for hospitals to bill stents separately from surgical procedures or
package costs.
Coronary heart diseases in India:

There has been an alarming increase over the past two decades in the prevalence
of Coronary heart diseases (CHD) and cardiovascular mortality in India and
other south Asian countries. India is going through an epidemiologic transition
whereby the burden of communicable diseases have declined slowly, but that of
non-communicable diseases (NCD) has risen rapidly, thus leading to a dual
burden. There has been a 4-fold rise of CHD prevalence in India during the past
40 years. The burgeoning burden of CHD in India can be explained by the
alarming rise in the prevalence of coronary risk factors like diabetes,
hypertension, atherogenic dyslipidemia, smoking, central obesity and physical
inactivity. Rapid urbanization and change in lifestyle that occurred during the
past two decades have led to the growing burden of coronary risk factors in India.
Coronary Stent:
A coronary stent is a tube-shaped device placed in the arteries that supply blood
to the heart. It keeps the arteries open in the treatment of coronary heart
diseases. A coronary stent is used to clear blockages in the arteries and prevent
heart attacks.
Need for regulation:

It was found that huge unethical mark-ups are charged at each stage in the supply
chain of coronary stents resulting in irrational, restrictive and exorbitant prices in
a failed market system driven by information asymmetry between patients and
doctors, pushing patients to financial misery. Under such extraordinary
circumstances, there was an urgent necessity, in public interest, to fix ceiling
price of coronary stents to bring respite to the patients.
Benefits:
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• Heart patients who require coronary stents stand to get an average benefit
of close to `1lakh after the country's drug pricing authority fixed a cap on
stent prices.
• The move would encourage companies to make in India to cut costs.
• The move has been welcomed favorably by most civil society fighting for
price fixation as it could lead to a reduction in medical expenses.
Criticism
• Stent manufacturers, however, said the move will kill the industry by
discouraging companies to innovate and bring in new technologies into
this space.
• Such a regulation might lead to flooding of substandard products from
China and Canada.
• US FDA approved stents will be withdrawn from the market as the
government has brought all stents under one category.
• The NPPA notification completely disregards all stakeholder
representations on the need to differentiate stents based on their
technological differences. While the intent is to cap prices in the interests
of patients, this pricing has the potential to block innovations and limit
access to world-class medical care.
• In the US, 12 lakh stents are implanted annually and there are just three
approved manufacturers. In India, four lakh stents are implanted, but
there are 60 approved stent makers. Our drug controller lacks the
infrastructure to regulate stent firms.
2017 Nobel Prize in Medicine

➢ US geneticists Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W
Young were awarded the Nobel Medicine Prize today for shedding light
on the biological clock that governs the sleep-wake cycles of most living
things.
➢ The team’s work revealed the role of genes in setting the “circadian clock”,
which regulates sleep and eating patterns, hormones and body
temperature.
➢ The circadian clock is what causes jetlag — what happens when our
internal clock and external environment move out of sync as we change
time zones. It also regulates sleep, critical for normal brain function.
Circadian dysfunction has been linked to depression, bipolar disorder,
cognitive function, memory formation and some neurological diseases.
Studies have indicated that a chronic misalignment between our lifestyle
and circadian clock — irregular shift work, for example — may be
associated with an increased risk for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases,
metabolic disorders and inflammation.
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➢ Using the fruit fly as a model organism, this year’s laureates isolated a
gene that controls the daily biological rhythm, called the period gene.
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2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

➢ Jacques Dubochet of Switzerland, Joachim Frank of the US and
Richard Henderson of the UK were awarded the prize for cryo-electron
microsopy.
➢ The technique allows scientists to freeze biomolecules in action and
"visualize processes they have never previously seen. The method means
that, for example, molecules in bacteria and viruses -- such as the Zika
virus -- can be examined under a microscope in their native, undamaged
state.
2017 Nobel Physics Prize

➢ US scientists Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne won the
2017 Nobel Prize for Physics for their pioneering role in the detection of
gravitational waves.
➢ Ripples in the fabric of space-time first predicted a century ago by Albert
Einstein, gravitational waves sparked a revolution in astrophysics when
their first detection was announced early last year. Triggered when super-
dense black holes merge, the waves were detected using laser beams at the
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).
Hands Free Hectare Project

An experimental robotic farm run by UK scientists has been harvested for the
first time, yielding about 5 tonnes of spring barley. Everything from start to
finish — including sowing, fertilising, collecting samples and harvesting — has
been done by autonomous vehicles on the farm.
SAM
NZ scientists have developed the world's first artificial
intelligence politician that can answer a person's queries regarding local
issues such as policies around housing, education and immigration.
Sophia
Developed by Hanson Robotics became world’s first humanoid robot to earn a
citizenship after Saudi Arabia gave it a citizenship.
Shibuya Mirai
Artificial intelligence character resembling a chatty seven-year-old boy. which
exists only as a chatbot on the popular Line messaging app granted official
residence in Tokyo, Japan becoming first artificial intelligence bot to be granted a
place on a real-life local registry.
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Emerging issue: Will future humanoids with "rational mind and intellect"
complement the humans' creative and flexible ideas or overpower humans & spell
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the end of human race?

Challenges in adopting electric vehicles technology in

India
India is zipping ahead on its path to embrace electric cars as automakers as well
as the government are gearing up to bring electric mobility to the country. The
government wants only electric vehicles to ply on India’s roads by 2030 as part
of its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the global
agreement on climate change, and to reduce spending on oil imports, which,
according to one estimate, could double to an annual $300 billion by that year.
The urgency comes against the backdrop of the fact that six Indian cities,
including capital New Delhi, are among the 15 most polluted cities in the world
ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) last year.
In the past 12 months, four other countries have come out with a definite time
frame to ban the sale of ICE vehicles in favour of EVs. The Netherlands and
Norway want to do it by 2025. The UK and France want to phase out ICE vehicles
by 2040. The UK has said it won’t even allow vehicles running on traditional fuel
to ply on its roads from 2050.
Policy think-tank Niti Aayog has recommended offering fiscal incentives to EV

manufacturers and discouraging privately-owned petrol- and diesel-fuelled
vehicles. The draft national energy policy states: “EVs are an area of huge interest
to India as it holds the potential of reducing the demand for liquid fuel.”
The challenges
While the transformative push for electric vehicles has become a cause célèbre for
India and the world, it presents challenges along with opportunities. India lacks
critical infrastructure and necessary technology to start manufacturing EVs.
Efficient components such as high-density batteries remain a key challenge.
Other key challenges are:
Lack of clarity in policy: Indian auto makers are beginning to scramble to

acquire electric technologies. Some manufacturers think the government’s target
is too ambitious, and it is moving too fast. The government should give clarity on
the policy front as the auto industry cannot switch to BS-VI emission standards,
and then to CNG and then to electric vehicles overnight.
Charging infrastructure bottlenecks: The conversation surrounding electric

vehicles in India has been around chargeable battery EVS, so the primary issues
arise on account of electricity generation and charging infrastructure. The
government hasn’t specified how it plans to generate uninterrupted electricity in
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cities, where power shortages are routine, let alone provide universal access to
electricity in the hinterland.
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Surge in electricity demand: Another related risk is that of EV charging

leading to a surge in electricity demand which in turn may put at risk India’s
already stretched electricity distribution networks.
Job loss in oil industry: The issues that need to be considered are job losses in
the components industry, the number of upcoming oil refineries and how
dependence on petrol will be reduced, the downstream and upstream sectors in
the petrol business, and the investments that will possibly go bad in these sectors.
Raw material constraint: Factors specific to the business such as the raw
material for batteries, and if they would lead to import dependence on another
set of countries will also have to be considered. India does not have enough
lithium reserves for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. This could lead to a
substantial change in the country’s energy security priorities, with securing
lithium supplies, a key raw material for EV batteries, becoming as important as
buying oil and gas fields overseas.
Recycling hurdles: These new lithium-ion batteries are too poisonous and
should be recycled properly. The recycling process is so demanding that even
Germany has its doubts. It’s also very expensive.
Charger issue: Another issue is whether to go for AC (alternating current) or

DC (direct current) chargers. While an AC charger takes around six hours to
charge an EV, DC chargers are faster and take around 40 minutes to one hour to
fully charge a vehicle.
China’s competitive edge: Indian firms have also warned about the EV story
going the solar module way with most solar power developers sourcing modules
and equipment from countries such as China, where they are cheaper.
Way Ahead
A clear policy objective supported by a cohesive and coordinated approach of
relevant Ministries and Departments, a supportive tax infrastructure, and rising
participation of market forces — all indicate that India is about to embark on a
new journey, which in itself can be full of challenges. But a committed
stewardship would successfully secure a brighter future composed of cleaner and
greener environment, enhanced global competitiveness and an investment hub
full of great possibilities.
Q India has set ambitious roadmap to switch to only electric vehicles by 2030 as
part of its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Critically discuss key
challenges which need to be addressed in this journey to make it a success.
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National Medical Commission Bill 2017

The Cabinet has cleared an ambitious Bill replacing India’s apex medical
education regulator, the Medical Council of India, with a new and
transparent body called the National Medical Commission (NMC).
The National Medical Commission Bill 2017 seeks to revolutionise the sector in
many ways and proposes for the first time an exit exam for MBBS graduates
who would have to clear this test to get practicing licences. There is no cap
proposed on how many times a graduate can take the exam. The bill is aimed at
bringing reforms in the medical education sector which has been under scrutiny
for corruption and unethical practices
Need for NMC in place of MCI:

The move is based on recommendations of the Ranjit Roychowdhury Committee
and a Parliamentary standing committee — both concluded that a regulator
elected by the fraternity it would monitor cannot be effective. MCI has long been
criticised for rampant corruption and a lack of accountability which, according to
a parliamentary standing committee report on health last year, would lead to
great social, financial and political cost if unchecked. " The main objective of the
regulator of medical education and practice in India is to regulate quality of
medical education, tailor medical education to the healthcare needs of the
country, ensure adherence to quality standards by medical colleges, produce
competent doctors possessing requisite skills and values as required by our
health system and regulate medical practice in accordance with the professional
code of ethics. The MCI as the regulator of medical education in the country has
repeatedly failed on all its mandates over the decades," it had said.
The concept note of the bill:

The institutions will be required to show compliance on their websites as the Bill
seeks to move away from the process and infrastructure-based
monitoring of medical colleges to an outcome-based monitoring by way of
the MBBS exit exam. This exit test will serve the purpose of actual
inspection. If a college is not teaching well, its MBBS graduates will fail the exit
test and must reappear by improving their standards. For the first time in history,
the outcome of the medical graduates will be tested and automatically the quality
of the college the graduates are attending.
Implication:
This means medical education sector will open up rapidly with major incentive
for private investors to set up more institutions with many more MBBS and PG
seats in near future and reduced cost of healthcare in far future.
Medical Advisory Council:

There will be a Medical Advisory Council, constituted by the central government,
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like the commission and the boards. The council, which will be advisory in
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nature, will meet at least once a year. It will serve as the primary platform

through which states will put forward their views and concerns before the NMC
and help shape the overall agenda in the field of medical education and
training.The 64-member medical advisory council will have one member from
each state and UT (nominated by the Home Ministry); chairman UGC; director
NAAC, etc. There will be four boards under the NMC for UG and PG medical
education, ethics, ratings and assessment.
Other provisions:
The Bill gives powers to NMC to regulate fees in 40 per cent of the seats in
private medical colleges. This is to ensure equitable availability of medical
education. The MCI under Indian Medical Council Act of 1956 never had fee-
regulation powers.
The MBBS exit exam will serve two more purposes—entrance exam for PG
admissions and foreign medical graduate exam.
The Bill further proposes to end MCI-style annual inspections of colleges and will
leave medical colleges free to add MBBS and PG seats after prescribing minimum
standards expected of institutions. Over the years, there have been numerous
allegations about the functioning of MCI, with its system of annual inspections
being accused of being “random” and susceptible to corruption.
Under the NMC Bill, if a college is found to be in violation of norms, such as those
governing teachers, laboratories, patients, etc., it can be fined sums ranging from
half of the cumulative fees it charges from students to 10 times that amount.
How new panel will function

• Structurally, National Medical Commission (NMC) will be a 25-member
body
• Unlike MCI, which only had elected members, the NMC will have five
elected members; others will come through selections
• Will comprise four autonomous boards tasked with laying standards for
undergraduate and PG education, recognition assessment and rating of
medical colleges
• Another board will take care of registering medical practitioners and
enforcing medical ethics
• The Medical Assessment and Rating Board will monitor medical colleges
based on UG and PG education standards set by the UG Medical
Education Board and PG Board under the commission
Hyperloop
The futuristic transport system Hyperloop has come a long way since
entrepreneur Elon Musk proposed a "fifth mode of transport" after planes,
trains, cars and boats in 2012. The concept, in which commuters are whisked
through a tube at speeds in excess of 700mph, has developed rapidly with
inventors and investors giving their backing.
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Concept:
Hyperloop is a proposed system of transport that would see pods or containers
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travel at high speeds through a tube that has been pumped into a near-vacuum.
The train pods would either float using magnetic levitation technology or float
using air caster "skis". It is based on vactrain concept which employs
magnetically levitating trains in the form of capsules in the evacuated (airless) or
partly evacuated tubes, counteracting the force of gravity and removing all the
friction that occurs between parts that touch each other, which is the major
drawback of cars, trucks and conventional trains.
With so little friction in the tunnel, the pods would be able to travel at immense
speeds with projected top speeds of 760mph. The pod would initially launch
using an electric motor before levitation takes place and the pod can glide at
cruising speed in the low-pressure environment. Tunnels for the Hyperloop
would be built either above or below ground, at only around 3m in diameter,
taking up a smaller ground footprint than traditional rail and road.
History:
The idea of travelling through a vacuum tube and been around for more than 100
years. In fact, some of the very first underground railways in the UK ran using an
air pressure system. But the current idea for the Hyperloop came from Elon
Musk, the entepreneur behind PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX in 2012. The idea is that
the capsule would whiz from LA to San Francisco in only 35 minutes (compared
with 3 hours and 10 minutes for the planned CA high-speed railway).
Advantages of Hyperloop Technology:

A major advantage of the hyperloop tube concept is its potential for extremely
efficient transportation on a large scale.( the entire concept is untested and
speculative).The technology offers very fast speed of transportation which is
twice that of aircraft. The hyperloop can be powered mostly or entirely by
renewable energy. If powered entirely by solar and wind power, the net emissions
of the hyperloop are practically zero (will depend on the actual designs that are
built).
➨It has very low power consumption.
➨It is low cost transportation system on long run. Compared to high-speed rail
travel, Hyperloops potentially need far less ground space to construct their
tunnels and far less energy to transport the pods than conventional trains.
(Projected costs for new technologies usually end up being wildly off the mark --
and typically not in a favorable direction)
➨It is immune to bad weather conditions.
➨It is resistant to earthquakes.
➨It is safe mode of transportation system.
It has smaller civil engineering footprint, with no direct emissions or noise
compared to railways
Challenges or disadvantages of Hyperloop Technology

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➨High speed of capsule (almost at speed of sound) may cause dizziness to the
passengers travelling due to vibration and jostling. (The white paper's pod design
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will not allow people to stand, walk around or go to the bathroom-claustrophobia

effects)
➨Initial cost of investment to have the system in place is very high. The long
vacuum chamber manufacturing requires more technical skills. Moreover this is
costly and also risky to maintain. (unlikely to be immune to the
hypertrophication of cost that every other grand infrastructure project seems
doomed to suffer)
➨Land use rights will be concern for deployment of the project.
➨It has very high risk to life when something wrong happens to the system.
➨It has limited space in the train and hence people cannot move freely.
➨As hyperloop uses steel for track, it expands and changes shape when outside
temperature is changed. This may destroy the track of hyperloop technology. This
needs to be considered while designing the system based on environment of the
location where it is being deployed.
Opportunities:
➢ The Hyperloop would be the first truly revolutionary new transportation

system in half a century.
➢ The Hyperloop could radically change the time and cost equation for travel
and transport between nearby cities.
➢ Hyperloop technology, once perfected, could be sold and deployed
worldwide.
➢ The Hyperloop would create lots of jobs, from technology to
manufacturing to construction to operation.
➢ The Hyperloop is an exciting, inspiring project that would command the
attention of the world for years.
Hyperloop in India:
India's first Hyperloop project is coming up in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Elon
Musk's revolutionary transport idea will be connecting the city centres,
Vijayawada and Amaravati. The Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board
(APEDB) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hyperloop
Transportation Technologies (HTT) for furthering the project and making it
happen. The project will be funded from a Public Private Partnership (PPP)
model.
Hyperloop concept is sound, with enormous potential. The idea could reduce
journey times over long distances, but there are enormous challenges to
overcome before any such project can become a reality. It is still in trial stages in
different countries and has currently never been implemented anywhere in the
world yet.
Q Hyperloop concept has enormous potential to be the first truly revolutionary

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new transportation system in half a century but faces several roadblocks.

Critically comment
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Role of Blockchain technology in governance & industry

Recent media attention on blockchain has mostly focused on the technology's
applications in the finance industry or on the numerous coins being generated on
its platform. But the extent of its utility goes beyond immediate headlines.
Blockchain's distributed ledger can be used to store, maintain and prosecute a
wide variety of services.
Blockchain technology-concept:
A blockchain is a public ledger of all transactions that have ever been executed. It
is constantly growing as ‘completed’ blocks are added to it with a new set of
recordings. The blocks are added to the blockchain in a linear, chronological
order through cryptography, ensuring that they remain meddle-proof. The
blockchain thus stands as a tamper-proof record of all transactions on the
network, distributed to all participants.
Thus the validation of any recording on the blockchain isn’t centralized,

eliminating the need of a third-party to an intermediate. To put it to better use,
these distributed ledgers can be open or permissioned, or restricted or
unpermissioned, in terms of the number of people who can access the
information. There is an irrevocable trail of all the transactions that have ever
been made, which makes attempts of hacking or fraud unsuccessful. Thus,
blockchain offers a chance to work at lower costs with greater regulatory
compliance, reduced risk and enhanced efficiency.
Blockchain in governance:
Governments in particular are keen to use blockchain to streamline services.
According to an IBM survey (conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit) of
200 government leaders in 16 countries, nine in 10 government organizations
plan to use the technology for "financial transaction management, asset
management, contract management and regulatory compliance by 2018."
Governments around the world have established pilot projects to integrate

blockchain technology into their operations. In developed countries, blockchain
will help streamline government functions to make them more efficient.
In emerging economies, blockchain has the potential to help governments
achieve policy goals by leapfrogging intermediate layers of technology. For
example, it can help in social welfare objectives by eliminating the need for credit
cards or bank accounts to disburse funds to those who are unbanked.
The Illinois government is conducting five focused pilots for blockchain across
multiple government departments. The range of functions envisaged for the
technology include record keeping (for properties and births) and an energy
credit marketplace to track renewable energy credits.
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Blockchain in industries:
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While the Bitcoin currency has earned a somewhat shady reputation, the
blockchain ledger infrastructure behind it has huge potential to simplify
transactions in a variety of industries. Because each transaction is verified by a
network, it takes out the middleman, putting the power back in consumers’
hands. This could not only save you money, but make your personal data more
secure.
There is a clear application for financial industries. Fewer hands involved in a
stock trade, or a money transfer, could mean a faster transaction and lower fees.
Mainstream companies like IBM and Goldman Sachs are investing in blockchain
research. Nasdaq is already experimenting with a private blockchain-powered
stock exchange. According to a survey report by the World Economic Forum,
“10% of global gross domestic product [will be] stored on blockchain technology
by 2025.”
Speed breeding
Scientists are engaged in a race against time to breed staple crops that can both
survive climate change and yield bigger harvests. Their aim is to feed a growing
population in a warming world. The method used for centuries of growing one
crop a year in variable weather conditions and then selecting the seeds from the
best plants is no longer viable in fast-changing climatic conditions. Scientists are
concerned that for some years there have been few improvements in yields of
grain. The growing human population and a changing environment have raised
significant concern for global food security, with the current improvement rate of
several important crops inadequate to meet future demand. This slow
improvement rate is attributed partly to the long generation times of crop plants.
Concept:
A new system called speed breeding, designed to grow six crops a year, has been
developed in glasshouses to accelerate the process. Using LED lighting to aid
photosynthesis, intensive regimes allow the plants to grow for 22 hours a day.
This new form of lighting is a lot cheaper and also more efficient than using the
old sodium vapour lamps that produced too much heat and not enough light. The
use of supplemental lighting in a glasshouse environment allows rapid generation
cycling through single seed descent (SSD) and potential for adaptation to larger-
scale crop improvement programs.
Among the crops that can now be grown up to six generations a year are wheat,
barley, peas and chickpeas. Canola, a form of rapeseed, can achieve four cycles.
Potential advantages:
• Using this technology, scientists can study the way plants deal with
diseases, and their shape and structure and flowering time, and the
growing cycle can be repeated every eight weeks.
• The quality and yield of the plants grown under controlled climate and
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extended daylight conditions was as good, or sometimes better, than those

grown in regular glasshouses.
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• The new technology could also have some great applications in future
vertical farming systems, and some horticultural crops
• Being able to cycle through more generations in less time will allow to
rapidly create and test genetic combinations, looking for the best
combinations for different environments.
• The technology allows scientists to study plant characteristics such as
pathogen interactions, shape and structure as well as flowering time.
Scope:
It is hoped the technique will yield new varieties of crops that can be grown on a
commercial scale within 10 years. If this could be achieved, it would increase
productivity in the same way as the green revolution of the 1960s, when new crop
varieties, modern farm practices, and use of fertilisers saved millions of people
from starvation. There has been a lot of interest globally in this technique due to
the fact that the world has to produce 60-80 per cent more food by 2050 to feed
its nine billion people. So far the technique has been largely used for research
purposes, but there's been overwhelming interest from industry to put the
method into broader practice.
Isro hits a century into space, successfully launches

100th satellite
PSLVC-40 Mission successful
Launch vehicle: PSLV-C40
Launch site: Sriharikota
No of satellites: 31 (3 Indian+28 foreign)
Main payload: Cartosat-2
Nature of satellite: Remote sensing
Applications: Will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural
network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, precision
study, change detection to bring out geographical and man-made features and
various other Land Information System and Geographical Information System
applications.
Foreign satellites: Canada, Finland, France, Korea, the United Kingdom and
United States of America
Highlight:
• Launch of three Indian satellites during the mission marked the rollout of
the 100th satellite from ISRO (marks the maiden century of Indian
satellites)
• Demonstrated the multiple-burn technology-Placing satellites in different
orbits through a single rocket will save money and help launch more
commercial satellites.
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Significance of PSLV-C40 mission

After a lull of over four months, the Indian Space Research Organisation is back
in the game as its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40) has
successfully placed 31 satellites in two different orbits in one of the longest
missions.
PSLV-C40, in its 42nd flight, placed 31 satellites -- Cartosat-2 Series, Microsat,
28 foreign nanosatellites and an Indian nanosatellite -- in orbits. The foreign
nanosatellites are from the US, France, Finland, the UK, South Korea and
Canada.
Application of Cartosat-2
The main payload Cartosat-2 Series satellite will provide regular remote sensing
services using its panchromatic and multispectral cameras. The images sent by
the satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural
network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change
detection to bring out geographical and man-made features and various other
land information system (LIS) as well as geographical information system (GIS)
applications.
Application of Microsat:
The Indian microsatellite will demonstrate a new technology which will allow
capturing of images at night and will also provide high resolution scene specific
spot imageries.
Significance:
The launch was significant for following reasons –
• Isro demonstrated multiple-burn technology that it tested in three
previous launches. Placing satellites in different orbits through a single
rocket will save money and help launch more commercial satellites.
• The space agency also placed the 100th satellite it has built in its
laboratory. (Marks the maiden century of Indian satellites)
• Two Indian satellites in the payload were called technology demonstrators,
indicating significant strides towards miniaturisation. The microsatellite is
of the 100 kg class. This is a technology demonstrator and the forerunner
for future satellites of this series. The nanosatellite, named Indian Nano
Satellite (INS) - 1C, is the third in its series; its predecessors were part of
the PSLV-C37 launch of February 2017. The INS-1C, whose mission life is
six months, carries the Miniature Multispectral Technology
Demonstration payload from the Space Applications Centre.
• This is the space agency's first mission in 2018, and its first since the
unsuccessful launch of IRNSS-1H in August last year. PSLV-C39, which
lifted off on August 31 last year, failed after the heat shield, the tip of the
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rocket, did not open as programmed.

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Objection by Pakistan:

Pakistan has raised objections over the launch of the satellite and said that its
dual nature, military as well as civilian, of the satellite can have a "negative
impact on the regional strategic stability".
Conclusion:
India will use the information gathered from this, and other Cartosat satellites, to
meet a broad range of needs on the sub-continent. Indeed, not only has the
Cartosat series allowed the country to address the needs of a growing India; it has
been able to do so with a significant cost savings. Prior to having their own stable
of Earth observing satellites, India used to pay $20 per square kilometer for
imaging from Ikonos. The Cartosat program, in comparison, has lead to a 20-fold
reduction of imaging costs for the country.
The launch of the 100th satellite by ISRO signifies both its glorious achievements,
and also the bright future of India’s space programme. 2018 is likely to be ISRO’s
most ambitious year yet. India’s space programme has said it plans to launch one
rocket every month this year, and it’s also aiming for the moon once again: The
second unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan 2, is set for a March launch.
Q The launch of the 100th satellite by ISRO signifies both its glorious
achievements and also the bright future of India’s space programme. Give a brief
review of Indian space programme & discuss significance of PSLV C-40 launch.
Genome editing
Genome editing (also called gene editing) is a group of technologies that give
scientists the ability to change an organism's DNA. These technologies allow
genetic material to be added, removed, or altered at particular locations in the
genome. Several approaches to genome editing have been developed. A recent
one is known as CRISPR-Cas9, which is short for clustered regularly
interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9.
The CRISPR-Cas9 system has generated a lot of excitement in the scientific
community because it is faster, cheaper, more accurate, and more efficient than
other existing genome editing methods.
Genome editing is of great interest in the prevention and treatment of human

diseases. Currently, most research on genome editing is done to understand
diseases using cells and animal models. Scientists are still working to determine
whether this approach is safe and effective for use in people. It is being explored
in research on a wide variety of diseases, including single-gene disorders such
as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, and sickle cell disease. It also holds promise for the
treatment and prevention of more complex diseases, such as cancer, heart
disease, mental illness, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
Ethical concerns arise when genome editing, using technologies such as CRISPR-
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Cas9, is used to alter human genomes. Most of the changes introduced with
genome editing are limited to somatic cells, which are cells other than egg and
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sperm cells. These changes affect only certain tissues and are not passed from

one generation to the next. However, changes made to genes in egg or sperm cells
(germline cells) or in the genes of an embryo could be passed to future
generations. Germline cell and embryo genome editing bring up a number of
ethical challenges, including whether it would be permissible to use this
technology to enhance normal human traits (such as height or intelligence).
Based on concerns about ethics and safety, germline cell and embryo genome
editing are currently illegal in many countries.
Jaitapur N-deal
Nuclear Power Corporation (NPCIL) and EDF of France have signed an
agreement for building the 10,000-MW (megawatt) Jaitapur nuclear power
plant in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, making India the fifth country to opt for
the EPR (European pressurised reactor) technology that is yet to become
commercially operational anywhere in the world.
The agreement for the Jaitapur project billed as the world's largest nuclear
power project with six EPR reactors comes even though questions over the
untested EPR technology, project cost and power tariff as well as EDF's ability to
complete the project on time remain unanswered.
What is EDF?
EDF is a French state-controlled company and is Europe's largest operator of
nuclear power plants. The company last year took over the nuclear power
equipment-making business of Areva, which had developed the EPR technology
and was to originally build the Jaitapur plant, after it landed in dire straits.
About EPR technology:

The European Pressurized Reactor (EPR, or Evolutionary Power Reactor) is a
third generation nuclear reactor under construction developed by the French
companies Areva NP and EDF (Eléctricité De France). There is no important
technological breakthrough with the third generation but it is designed to be safer
and more efficient. It is one of the most powerful reactor in the world. The EPR
design has several active and passive protection measures against accidents —
four independent emergency cooling systems, each capable of cooling down the
reactor after shutdown, in other words 300 per cent redundancy.
Key Issue areas:

Disaster risk: Areva had signed the MoU for Jaitapur in 2009, with an
estimated cost of $4 billion. In April 2015, Areva signed a pre-engineering
agreement with NPCIL to examine the licensability of its EPR technology in
India. The troubles for Areva began after it found few takers for its EPR
technology as the world shunned nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima
disaster in Japan. The EPR technology is yet to become commercially operational
anywhere in the world.
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High cost: But the more basic question for the Jaitapur project pertains to the
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cost of energy. The tariff could go up to Rs 8 or so unless the project gets cheap
financing from the French or Indian government lending agencies. Even the Rs 7
per unit price cap will appear costly in public perception in the backdrop of solar
and wind power tariff dropping to below Rs 3 per unit-mark. Admittedly, solar
and wind are intermittent energy sources as against nuclear power station. But it
may be hard to manage public perception.
Risk of time & cost over-run: All the nuclear power projects using the EPR
technology currently under construction globally - Hinkley Point in the UK,
Olkiluoto in Finland, Flamanville in France and Taishan in China - are facing
time and cost over-runs.
Environment concerns: It is likely to harm the fragile ecosystem of the

Western Ghats and Maharashtra coasts, deprive thousands of farmers and
fisherfolk of their livelihood, besides other risks and safety factors
New technology: Besides, the "fear of the untried technology" still remains one
of the key areas of concern. This could have partially been addressed had EDF
taken full responsibility of engineering, procurement and construction process.
But the French company has so far not agreed to this and only inked a co-
operation deal with Indian engineering-construction giant L&T for higher
localisation of the fabrication process.
Inadequate Cost benefit analysis: Experts have already warned against

going ahead with any deals with bankrupt MNCs attempting to “dump” obsolete
yet expensive technologies for their financial benefit at the cost of the Indian
people—without considering the effects of radiation on humans, animals and
marine life, the local environment and the Arabian Sea waters on the west coast.
Practice ques: Areva’s third-generation EPR nuclear reactor has had a

troublesome start, with heavy delays and cost overruns in the two units under
construction in Finland and France. Is the EPR nuclear reactor suited to meet
India’s growing energy need? Comment
After the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, the world is veering towards other
renewable energy options which are much cheaper, clean and totally risk-free.
Discuss significance & controversies associated with landmark JNPP?
Grey areas in universal health coverage in India

India is a land of contrasts and its provision of healthcare is no different. While
wealthier people living in urban areas have access to high quality healthcare
services, a vast majority of people living in rural areas have very limited access to
quality healthcare. Every year, countless households are pushed into extreme
poverty as a result of expenditure out of an individual's pocket on his
health. Though UHC is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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adopted by the United Nations for eliminating poverty, the grassroot scenario in
India is bleak. Significantly, 70 per cent of healthcare is provided by the private
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sector in India. There is a large health disparity between social classes, urban and
rural populations and geographical locations.
Smart targets for achieving UHC:

Efficiency is key to moving towards Universal Health coverage (UHC), and
priority setting is essential to getting the maximum value for the money
spent. There are seven smart targets that need to be prioritised to achieve UHC in
India. These are:
1. Reducing child undernutrition and chronic diseases
2. Reducing the number of malaria infections
3. Reducing the number of tuberculosis deaths
4. Lowering the newborn mortality rate
5. Increasing the number of childhood immunisations
6. Improving access to family planning
7. Reducing indoor air pollution
Major challenges:
The first challenge (even after 13 years of the launch of the NRHM and
subsequent National Health Mission) is the wide disparity in the quality of
healthcare services in the public and private sector as regulatory standards are
neither established nor enforced properly by the Government of India. Unless
strict laws are formulated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
(MOHFW) and the Indian Council of Medical Research, the country cannot attain
success.
Secondly, the issue of quacks and traditional healers treating patients at the
grassroot level is a serious concern. This is connected to the poor availability of
healthcare services and service providers in rural areas. The government has not
formulated any Bill to curb these malpractices. The extent of harm, morbidity
and mortality resulting from such treatments is devastating.
Thirdly, the non-affordability of healthcare services is a major problem with the

vast majority of our people. As a result, they are impoverished because of high
out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures. They also suffer the adverse consequences
of the poor quality of care. Cases of medical negligence are on the rise; and
unethical medical and nursing practices are also resorted to. The recent case of
medical negligence of a private hospital in the capital shook the conscience of the
nation and is testimony to the fact that even the corporate hospitals too are
falliable.
Suggestions to improve healthcare

• Focus on mass surveillance of 'at risk' and 'vulnerable populations' for
non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes and hypertension.
• Well-planned system and policy for monitoring occupational health
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diseases and introduction of the concept of occupational health physicians

and nurses by formulating post-graduate courses for the latter are needed.
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• Provision of hazard identification units in industrial set-ups.

• Geographical coverage for endemic diseases.

• Introducing prevention-based health checkups at outpatient departments
of every government health facility.
• Establishing a structured and well-organised referral system in the
villages, providing comprehensive services on the concept of primary
healthcare.
• Financial compensation to basic health workers working on population-
based targets.
Practice ques: In recent decades, Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has

emerged as a key strategy to make progress towards health-related and broader
development goals. Critically analyze major challenges in implementing
Universal Health Coverage in India.
Industry 4.0
We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter
the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and
complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has
experienced before. The next industrial revolution is upon us, as Industry 4.0
brings in a new wave of connected manufacturers and smart factories. Industry
4.0 is a current trend in manufacturing that involves a combination of cyber-
physical systems, automation and the Internet of Things (IoT), which together
create a smart factory. It is the fourth Industrial Revolution, following in the
footsteps of computers and the internet (Industry 3.0), mass production and
electricity (Industry 2.0) and mechanization and water/steam power (Industry
1.0). Industry 4.0 manufacturers worldwide are connecting their machines to the
cloud and developing their very own industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In doing
so, they are scratching the surface of untapped potential, which promises
exponential growth and enormous scalability for their business. It is
characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the
physical, digital, and biological spheres.
Industrial Revolution Time Period Core Aspects

1.0 1760 – 1840 Mechanization
2.0 1870 – 1914 Mass Production
3.0 1960 – 20?? Computerization
4.0 Now? -
There are three reasons why today’s transformations represent not merely a
prolongation of the Third Industrial Revolution but rather the arrival of a Fourth
and distinct one: velocity, scope, and systems impact. The speed of current
breakthroughs has no historical precedent. When compared with previous
industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a
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linear pace. Moreover, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country.

And the breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire
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systems of production, management, and governance.

The possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with

unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, are
unlimited. And these possibilities will be multiplied by emerging technology
breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of
Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology,
materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing.
Opportunities
Like the revolutions that preceded it, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has the
potential to raise global income levels and improve the quality of life for
populations around the world. To date, those who have gained the most from it
have been consumers able to afford and access the digital world; technology has
made possible new products and services that increase the efficiency and
pleasure of our personal lives. Ordering a cab, booking a flight, buying a product,
making a payment, listening to music, watching a film, or playing a game—any of
these can now be done remotely.
In the future, technological innovation will also lead to a supply-side miracle,

with long-term gains in efficiency and productivity. Transportation and
communication costs will drop, logistics and global supply chains will become
more effective, and the cost of trade will diminish, all of which will open new
markets and drive economic growth.
Challenges
The revolution could yield greater inequality, particularly in its potential to
disrupt labor markets. As automation substitutes for labor across the entire
economy, the net displacement of workers by machines might exacerbate the gap
between returns to capital and returns to labor.
More than 30 percent of the global population now uses social media platforms
to connect, learn, and share information. In an ideal world, these interactions
would provide an opportunity for cross-cultural understanding and cohesion.
However, they can also create and propagate unrealistic expectations as to what
constitutes success for an individual or a group, as well as offer opportunities for
extreme ideas and ideologies to spread.
Indian context:
With the right mix of accelerators - including regulatory frameworks, educational
ecosystems and government incentives - India can lead the fourth industrial
revolution, while simultaneously enhancing the quality, equity and sustainability
of its own growth and development outcome. With one of the youngest labour
forces in the world, a sizeable technical aptitude, the second largest number of
internet users on mobile devices and the second largest English speaking
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population, India is well positioned to enhance its global leadership in a post

fourth industrial revolution era.
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Impact of Industry 4.0 on government, people and challenges

before it
The rise of new digital industrial technology, known as Industry 4.0, is a
transformation that makes it possible to gather and analyze data across
machines, enabling faster, more flexible, and more efficient processes to produce
higher-quality goods at reduced costs. This manufacturing revolution will
increase productivity, shift economics, foster industrial growth, and modify the
profile of the workforce—ultimately changing the competitiveness of companies
and regions.
The impact on government

As the physical, digital, and biological worlds continue to converge, new
technologies and platforms will increasingly enable citizens to engage with
governments, voice their opinions, coordinate their efforts, and even circumvent
the supervision of public authorities. Simultaneously, governments will gain new
technological powers to increase their control over populations, based on
pervasive surveillance systems and the ability to control digital infrastructure. On
the whole, however, governments will increasingly face pressure to change their
current approach to public engagement and policymaking, as their central role of
conducting policy diminishes owing to new sources of competition and the
redistribution and decentralization of power that new technologies make
possible.
Ultimately, the ability of government systems and public authorities to adapt will
determine their survival. If they prove capable of embracing a world of disruptive
change, subjecting their structures to the levels of transparency and efficiency
that will enable them to maintain their competitive edge, they will endure. If they
cannot evolve, they will face increasing trouble.
This will be particularly true in the realm of regulation. Current systems of public
policy and decision-making evolved alongside the Second Industrial Revolution,
when decision-makers had time to study a specific issue and develop the
necessary response or appropriate regulatory framework. The whole process was
designed to be linear and mechanistic, following a strict “top down” approach.
But such an approach is no longer feasible. Given the Fourth Industrial
Revolution’s rapid pace of change and broad impacts, legislators and regulators
are being challenged to an unprecedented degree and for the most part are
proving unable to cope.
How, then, can they preserve the interest of the consumers and the public at large
while continuing to support innovation and technological development? By
embracing “agile” governance, just as the private sector has increasingly adopted
agile responses to software development and business operations more generally.
This means regulators must continuously adapt to a new, fast-changing
environment, reinventing themselves so they can truly understand what it is they
are regulating. To do so, governments and regulatory agencies will need to
collaborate closely with business and civil society.
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution will also profoundly impact the nature of
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national and international security, affecting both the probability and the nature

of conflict. The history of warfare and international security is the history of

technological innovation, and today is no exception. Modern conflicts involving
states are increasingly “hybrid” in nature, combining traditional battlefield
techniques with elements previously associated with nonstate actors. The
distinction between war and peace, combatant and noncombatant, and even
violence and nonviolence (think cyberwarfare) is becoming uncomfortably blurry.
As this process takes place and new technologies such as autonomous or
biological weapons become easier to use, individuals and small groups will
increasingly join states in being capable of causing mass harm. This new
vulnerability will lead to new fears. But at the same time, advances in technology
will create the potential to reduce the scale or impact of violence, through the
development of new modes of protection, for example, or greater precision in
targeting.
The impact on people

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, finally, will change not only what we do but
also who we are. It will affect our identity and all the issues associated with it: our
sense of privacy, our notions of ownership, our consumption patterns, the time
we devote to work and leisure, and how we develop our careers, cultivate our
skills, meet people, and nurture relationships. It is already changing our health
and leading to a “quantified” self, and sooner than we think it may lead to human
augmentation. The list is endless because it is bound only by our imagination.
The inexorable integration of technology could diminish some of quintessential
human capacities, such as compassion and cooperation. Our relationship with
our smartphones is a case in point. Constant connection may deprive us of one of
life’s most important assets: the time to pause, reflect, and engage in meaningful
conversation.
One of the greatest individual challenges posed by new information technologies
is privacy. We instinctively understand why it is so essential, yet the tracking and
sharing of information about us is a crucial part of the new connectivity. Debates
about fundamental issues such as the impact on our inner lives of the loss of
control over our data will only intensify in the years ahead. Similarly, the
revolutions occurring in biotechnology and AI, which are redefining what it
means to be human by pushing back the current thresholds of life span, health,
cognition, and capabilities, will compel us to redefine our moral and ethical
boundaries.
Challenges facing Industry 4.0

• Security: Perhaps the most challenging aspect of implementing Industry
4.0 techniques is the IT security risk. This online integration will give
room to security breaches and data leaks. Cyber theft must also be put into
consideration. In this case, the problem is not individual, but can, and
probably will, cost producers money and might even hurt their reputation.
Therefore, research in security is crucial.
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• Capital: Such transformation will require a huge investment in a new

technology that doesn’t sound cheap. The decision to make such
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transformation will have to be on CEO level. Even then, the risks must be

calculated and taken seriously. In addition, such transformation will

require a huge capital, which alienates smaller businesses and might cost
them their market share in the future.
• Employment: While it still remains early to speculate on employment
conditions with the adoption of Industry 4.0 globally, it is safe to say that
workers will need to acquire different or an all-new set of skills. This may
help employment rates go up but it will also alienate a big sector workers.
The sector of workers whose work is perhaps repetitive will face a
challenge in keeping up with the industry. Different forms of education
must be introduced, but it still doesn’t solve the problem for the elder
portion of workers. This is an issue that might take longer to solve and will
be further analyzed later in this report.
• Privacy: This not only the customer’s concern, but also the producers. In
such an interconnected industry, producers need to collect and analyze
data. To the customer, this might look like a threat to his privacy. This is
not only exclusive to consumers. Small or large companies who haven’t
shared their data in the past will have to work their way to a more
transparent environment. Bridging the gap between the consumer and the
producer will be a huge challenge for both parties.
Practice question:
1. What do you understand by term ‘Industry 4.0’? What is scope of Industry 4.0
in India?
2.Is the fourth industrial revolution only for large original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs), or can small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) also
benefit? How will this affect the skills gap?
Environmental & economic benefits of GM Crops

Plant genetic engineering methods were developed over 30 years ago, and since
then, genetically modified (GM) crops have become commercially available and
widely adopted. In these plants, one or more genes coding for desirable traits
have been inserted. The genes may come from the same or another plant species,
or from totally unrelated organisms. The traits targeted through genetic
engineering are often the same as those pursued by conventional breeding.
However, because genetic engineering allows for direct gene transfer across
species boundaries, some traits that were previously difficult or impossible to
breed can now be developed with relative ease.
What Are the Advantages of Genetically Modified Foods?

1. Food supplies become predictable.
When crop yields become predictable, then the food supply becomes predictable
at the same time. This gives us the ability to reduce the presence of food deserts
around the world, providing a greater population with a well-rounded nutritional
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opportunity that may not have existed in the past.

2. Improved Nutritional content.
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Genetic modifications do more than add pest resistance or weather resistance to

GMO crops. The nutritional content of the crops can be altered as well, providing
a denser nutritional profile than what previous generations were able to enjoy.
This means people in the future could gain the same nutrition from lower levels
of food consumption. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization notes that rice,
genetically modified to produce high levels of Vitamin A, have helped to reduce
global vitamin deficiencies.
3. Longer shelf life.
Instead of relying on preservatives to maintain food freshness while it sits on a
shelf, genetically modified foods make it possible to extend food life by enhancing
the natural qualities of the food itself. According to Environmental Nutrition,
certain preservatives are associated with a higher carcinogen, heart disease, and
allergy risk.
4. Medical benefits.
Through a process called “pharming,” it is possible to produce certain proteins
and vaccines, along with other pharmaceutical goods, thanks to the use of genetic
modifications. This practice offers cheaper methods of improving personal health
and could change how certain medications are provided to patients in the future.
Imagine being able to eat your dinner to get a tetanus booster instead of receiving
a shot in the arm – that’s the future of this technology.
5. Brighter appearance of foods
Colors can be changed or improved with genetically modified foods so they
become more pleasing to eat. Spoon University reports that deeper colors in
foods changes how the brain perceives what is being eaten. Deeper red colors
make food seem to be sweeter, even if it is not. Brighter foods are associated with
better nutrition and improved flavors.
6. Easier to transport.
Because GMO crops have a prolonged shelf life, it is easier to transport them
greater distances. This improvement makes it possible to take excess food
products from one community and deliver it to another that may be experiencing
a food shortage. GMO foods give us the opportunity to limit food waste, especially
in the developing world, so that hunger can be reduced and potentially
eliminated.
7. Lesser herbicides and pesticides.
Herbicides and pesticides create certain hazards on croplands that can eventually
make the soil unusable. Farmers growing genetically modified foods do not need
to use these products as often as farmers using traditional growing methods,
allowing the soil to recover its nutrient base over time. Because of the genetic
resistance being in the plant itself, the farmer still achieves a predictable yield at
the same time.
8.GMO crops use less water.
From 1980 to 2011, the amount of irrigation water required for fields planted
with corn decreased by 53%. For cotton fields the amount of irrigation water
decreased by 75%. Soybeans, rice, and potatoes all saw decreases of at least 38%.
9.Genetically modified crops can conserve energy, soil, and water
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resources.
That allows our food distribution networks to make less of an impact on the
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environment. Food can be grown in areas that receive very little rainfall and have

zero irrigation with proper genetic modifications. Crops can be grown on fields
with little soil. Because the crops have an increased resistance to disease, weeds,
and pests, there is greater consistency in the yields that can be produced. That
makes it easier to budget food resources for a larger population base.
Practice ques: The free trade promoted by most economists continues to drive
a substantial part of the greenhouse gas emissions and yet the sustainable
technologies they propose to cut emissions are in themselves dependent on
economic growth. Elucidate
Aeroponics-Future of farming
Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in air or mist environment without
the use of soil. Not to be confused with hydroponics or peeponics, aeroponics is
the process of spraying or fogging the roots of the plants with a nutrient solution.
The plants are usually housed in troughs, tubes or foam, with the leafy part of the
plants separate from the roots. Moreover, the roots are usually fully exposed and
constantly sprayed with micro bursts of atomized water.
Salient features:
Aeroponics is a process of growing plants in an air and mist environment,
without the use of soil. The set-up would be housed inside a green house
structure, with a state-of-the art refrigeration system. A completely closed
greenhouse with 40 per cent sunlight penetration, 60 per cent sunlight diffusion,
covered ground with mounted, automated pulse irrigation and automated climate
management are salient features. The basic principle of aeroponic growing is to
grow plants suspended in a closed or semi-closed environment by spraying the
plant’s dangling roots and lower stem with an atomized or sprayed, nutrient-rich
water solution.
Need for aeronomics:

Driven by the dire need for food and an all around drought-like situation in
several places with failing rains and a depleting water table, researchers have
been trying various methods of farming to increase crop yield with minimum
investment and water requirement. Aeronomics is one of latest methods to
achieve increase crop yield.
Why in news?
The Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR) is developing
aeroponic-based modules that include indoor farming which would not only help
to enhance agro productivity but also relieve stress among defence personnel.
DIHAR is a research wing of DRDO, which aims at evolving novel inputs, with
focused R&D in cold arid agro-animal technologies for enhancing agro-animal
productivity and availability of fresh foods for troops in Ladakh, the most difficult
terrain of the world.
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Advantages:
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• Since plants have access to oxygen 24/7 they generally will experience
faster growth than conventional means
• Water and nutrient used efficiently
• Less need for nutrients and water than traditional hydroponics systems
• No need to worry about weeding
• Takes up very little space
• It uses considerably less energy and water than traditional agriculture.
Disadvantages:
• Need to provide nutrients as with hydroponics
• Requires electricity for small pumps and timers
• As with hydroponics, there is need for some form of competency to run
system
• It can be an expensive system to buy
• In the beginning there is need to monitor the water
• Root crops and trees are much more difficult to grow
Conclusion:
Aeronomics is the best tool for farming in urban spaces. Using this technique,
one can convert building rooftops to vegetable-production bases. This can enable
cities to have more green buildings with a sustainable healthy vegetable
production. It is often referred as ‘white-collar agriculture’ &. ‘Farming of the
future’ as one need not dirty one's hands, remove grass, uproot or plant, only the
seedlings are placed.
Practice ques: Why aeroponics is described as ‘Farming of the future’ & touted
as white-collar agriculture?
69
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Current Affairs Update

Science & Technology Issues 2017-18

Dr. Vivek Rana

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2017-18

What is a neutrino & how is it produced?

Significance for India:

Major neutrino projects around the world:

1.Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, Canada

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3. Gran Sasso, Italy.

Controversies associated with INO project:

Issues regarding environmental clearance: The principal sticking point

Widespread misinformation about project: Another major issue is

Constructed in seismic sensitive zone: The INO is set to constructed in a

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There will be hazardous chemicals and gases: To ensure safety of the

*Scientists have junked all these claims as baseless and unfounded.

Practice ques: Discuss various controversies surrounding homegrown mega-

SIPRI Report: Trends in International Arms Transfers,

Top five global arms importers:

Top five global arms Exporters:

waters in intense counter-measure environment.

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Fifth Generation Fighter Jets

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES OF MISSION:

➢ Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky

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➢ Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet

LIMITATIONS OF GROUND BASED TELESCOPES:

GSLV-F09 Mission (South Asia satellite successfully launched)

South Asia Satellite launched-India aces space

Also called the Geostationary Communication Satellite-9 (GSAT-9), it will have a

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India has written a new chapter in the sphere of space diplomacy

Practice Question: Discuss applications of GSAT-9 satellite & explain how it

ISRO creates World Record, PSLV C37 Mission successful

➢ Launch site: Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota

➢ Satellites launched: 104 (3 Indian+101 Foreign nanosatellites)

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➢ Indian satellites: Cartosat- 2 series (Earth observation satellite), INS-

Application of Cartosat: cartographic applications, urban and rural

PSLV C37 Mission-A critical analysis

Opportunities & Challenges:

hard science and prestige projects like Mangalyaan.

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Technologies and hacks are constantly developed for communications, imaging,

Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology

The RLV-TD is described as “a very preliminary step” in the development of a

Key technology involved:

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Competition with SpaceX Rockets:

Conventional launches by the Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO and other space

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Practice question: Discuss the significance of RLV-TD for Indian space

The Problem with Space Debris and Possible Solutions

hopefully completely burned up in the atmosphere or crash into unpopulated

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Another solution is to put shielding on spaceships and space stations. For

Create massive blobs of aerogel or lightweight surfaces with huge

World’s 1st hack-proof satellite

Launch site: Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, Gobi Desert

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Advantages of Quantum communications: