Science and Technology Crux Vol 5

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News for Jan.-Mar.2016
Science and Tech.
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Vol. 05
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Vol. 05
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Vol. 05
SPACE
began three months ago and is scheduled to be ready
by mid-2017. It will enable the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) to do a dozen launches a year
compared to about eight at present; this includes both
the PSLV and the GSLV vehicles, according to P. Kun-
New way to measure gravity can find hikrishnan, Director of the launch port, Satish Dhawan
Earth-like planets Space Centre (SDSC).
In a bid to determine whether distant stars with planets
Work on the second VAB began in October last year by
orbiting them can harbour life, a global team of astrono-
a team of Indian industries. [VAB2] is a complex project,
mers has discovered a new way to measure the pull of
about three times bigger than the existing one. We ex-
gravity at the surface of distant stars. Knowing the sur-
pect to get it completed by the first half of 2017 and start
face gravity of a star is essentially knowing how much
using it from the second half onwards, he said.
you would weigh on that star.
It will handle different types of future launch vehicles that
If stars had solid surfaces on which you could stand,
are also in the works at other centres.
then your weight would change from star to star.The new
SDSC has two launch pads, LP1 and LP2, which are both
method allows scientists to measure surface gravity with
designed differently. A vehicle assembly bay is attached
an accuracy of about four per cent, for stars too distant
to LP2 by rail. The second bay will also be connected
and too faint to apply current techniques.
to LP2 by rail and will increase SDSCs total launch fre-
quency.
ISRO is midway through work on the heavy-lift GSLV
Mark III vehicle and is working on another 10-tonne-
capacity semi-cryogenic launch vehicle. The new VAB is
being tailored to these.
Leaving the preparation time between two launches, nor-
mally ranging from a month to two, LP1 can now do up
to five launches and LP2 up to eight, while focussing on
GSLV and MkIII.
The maiden one, SLV-3 E1, of August 1979 was a failure
If you dont know the star, you dont know the planet. The
but marked the countrys first shot at putting satellites in
size of an exoplanet is measured relative to the size of its
orbit. So far it has put into orbit 42 Indian satellites in-
parent star, said study co-author and professorJaymie
cluding communication, navigation and remote sensing
Matthews from University of British Columbia.
(Earth observation) kinds; and 57 small satellites for for-
If you find a planet around a star that you think is Sun-like
eign customers.
but is actually a giant, you may have fooled yourself into
The historic 50thlaunch was the December 16 flight of
thinking youve found a habitable Earth-sized world.
PSLV-C29 carrying six Singapore satellites, ISRO said,
Our technique can tell you how big and bright is the star,
noting that SHAR was developed from a barren island
and if a planet around it is the right size and temperature
into a world class launch pad that meets international de-
to have water oceans, and maybe life, Matthews added.
mand for launching small and mid-sized satellites rang-
The new technique called the autocorrelation function
ing from a few kilos up to 1.5 tonnes.
timescale technique or timescale technique for short,
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
uses subtle variations in the brightness of distant stars

recorded by satellites like Canadas MOST and NASAs
ISRO conceives two space parks
Two space industry enclaves or parks that have been
Kepler missions.
conceived one for launchers at Sriharikota and a
smaller one at an existing Bengaluru spacecraft campus
Sriharikota space port scores 50 signal increased privatisation of the nations space
The nations space launch complex at Sriharikota in
programme over the next five years.
coastal Andhra Pradesh, which reached its milestone
For now, the facilities will be captive to drive the future
50th launch last month, is being readied to take up at
missions of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
least four more launches a year than now.
First, ISRO wants to groom and engage domestic indus-
Work on the second vehicle assembly building (SVAB)
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
try in the launch vehicles area from integrating sub-sys- the papers authors.
tems up to assembling, and even launching the PSLV.
This well-established rocket has put Indian and foreign
satellites of up to 1,600 kg into space.
ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space,
A.S. Kiran Kumar, toldInternal discussions have just
started on the mechanism of forming a (launch vehicle)
consortium. A few key industry players working in the
space programme have been sounded.
Eventually the future consortium will be fully responsi-
ble for building and launching the light-lift PSLV rocket.
Currently industries such as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Data collected by Rosettas Visible Infrared and Thermal
Godrej & Boyce, Larsen & Toubro, MTAR and Walchand- Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) showed that the water
nagar Industries produce 80 per cent of the launch vehi- ice grains in the Imhotep region came in different sizes.
cle parts and sub-units. Some of the grains were tiny, just tens of micrometres
These production works are scattered across their re- across, which were probably formed as a result of the
spective locations. The launch industry initiative must comets 12-hour rotation.
be close to ISROs launch complex, the Satish Dhawan
Space Centre, at the 145-sq km Sriharikota range, on the First flower in space is giant leap for
lines of the launch complex of Europes Arianespace in zero-gravity gardening
French Guiana, Mr. Kiran Kumar told . When there is no up, which way does a flower grow?
Satellite support Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have
On the spacecraft front, ISRO plans to increasingly sup- answered this and other zero-gravity gardening conun-
port small and mid-sized industries at its 10-year-old sec- drums by growing the first flower in space.
ond spacecraft complex, the 100-acre ISITE, at Maratha- The orange zinnia looks like a daisy and has a reputation
halli in Bengaluru. for being one of the easiest flowers to grow on Earth. In
ISITE, short for ISRO Satellite Integration & Test Estab- space, though, it was a challenge getting it to sprout.
lishment, is already open to a few suppliers who assem- The flowers seemed doomed in December after four
ble and test their spacecraft systems for the ISRO. In the plants developed mould. But at the weekend, U.S. as-
coming years, more satellites will be needed for replacing tronaut Scott Kelly, who has been taking care of them,
the ageing ones in orbit and new advanced communica- tweeted a photo of a solitary blooming zinnia with the
tion, Earth observation and navigation spacecraft. Earth in the distance behind it, with the hashtag #Space-
Flower and the words: Yes, there are other life forms in
Researchers identify water ice on Comet space!
67P The flower is part of a wider attempt to grow food in or-
Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have iden- bit, using Nasas plant growth system Veggie, which was
tified two large patches of water ice on the surface of delivered to the ISS in April 2014. The Veggie team has
comet 67P, perhaps the most studied comet in history. already enjoyed a successful lettuce harvest and plan
The elusive ice was detected, using data collected by to have tomatoes too by 2017. Ultimately, the hope is to
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
the European Space Agencys Rosetta spacecraft, on make possible a sustainable food supplement for a fu-
the bottom part of the main lobe of the dumbbell-shaped ture manned mission to Mars.
comet, in a region called Imhotep. But space gardening is plagued with problems, including
It appeared as noticeably bright patches in visible light high radiation levels and temperature extremes. Fortu-
and was located on cliff walls and debris falls, research- nately, with the ISS in a low orbit, the Earths magnetic
ers said. field shields plants from the worst radiation effects. Inside
It looked like there was a breakage, or something fell on the station, the atmosphere can be tightly controlled.
the surface of the comet, and a large, new inside area Experimentation on
that had water ice was exposed, said Murthy Gudipati Its a relatively nice environment, with heat and humid-
from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California, and one of ity control, says professorDhirenKataria, who builds
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
space instruments at University College Londons Mul- The governments new endeavour is to inject satellite-
lard Space Science Laboratory, and is working on a new based technology into governance and numerous com-
project to study the survival of seeds in space in collabo- mon uses. In this interview, A.S. Kiran Kumar , who has
ration with the seed bank at Kew Gardens. completed a year as Secretary, Department of Space and
Its quite significant that we can do this now, says Prof. Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, talks
Kataria. If we can grow flowers, it helps in terms of the about new shifts in Indias space activities in satellite and
pollination process. And if you want a sustainable envi- launcher areas. Excerpts:
ronment, you need cross-pollination. Plus, of course, A space law has been in the offing. What is its
nothing brightens up a space station like a nice bunch status?
of flowers. We have submitted papers to the government based on
discussions we first had with academicians and legal ex-
ISRO puts fifth GPS satellite in orbit perts in January 2015. It should be approved for circula-
In yet another textbook launch, the Indian Space Re- tion among a large number of departments the Minis-
search Organisation (ISRO) launched IRNSS-1E, the tries of Home Affairs, External Affairs [Defence, Finance,
fifth of the seven-satellite Indian Regional Navigation Law,] etc. Some more insight should come in from there.
Satellite System (IRNSS) into space. Something concrete should come out by next year. A
ISROs workhorse PSLV C-31 rocket lifted the 1,425 kg Space Act will be finally brought out through Parliament.
satellite from the second launchpad of the Satish Dhawan What was the need for it? What will it spell
Space Centre and placed it in the intended orbit some 19 out? And what will happen to the existing Satellite
minutes later. This is ISROs first launch for this year. Communication Policy and Remote Sensing Data Policy?
Though it was a textbook launch, the extremely cloudy Today, space-related activities are done [as per] business
skies in Sriharikota deprived the onlookers and journal- rules. The process to be adopted by the government for
ists of a clear view, as the soaring rocket was visible only these activities has to be defined because the govern-
for a few seconds, before clouds engulfed it. ment is responsible for any object put up in space and
Announcing that the launch was a success, ISRO chair- for what happens to it in orbit or because of it. With a
man A.S. Kiran Kumar said the national space agency law, all activities will be done under the Space Act. As
had a long way to go since two more satellites were to be we enable more and more industries in space activities,
launched by March. we also want clarity on what they can do and what the
Director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre P. Kunhikrishnan limitations are.
called the launch a New Year gift to the nation and said Very few countries have legislation pertaining to space.
the calendar was hectic for the space agency this year. However the number of countries as buyers of satellites
With the launch of the first four satellites IRNSS-1A, or solutions has increased. In space, anything can hap-
1B, 1C and 1D were launched in July 2013, April and pen. And it is more about what can happen collision,
October, 2014 and March last year respectively ISRO accidents, damage from or to a satellite.
said, The current achieved position accuracy is 20 me- So a law is necessary for the government to spell out how
tres over 18 hours of the day with four satellites. it will deal with issues, untoward incidents. It will help the
IRNSS-1E with a mission life of 12 years was launched government in how it will approach commercial use of
into a sub geosynchronous transfer orbit with a 284 km space, international collaborations and international trea-
perigee (nearest point to Earth) and 20,657 km apogee ties; and state regulatory mechanisms.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
(farthest point from Earth) with an inclination of 19.2 de- The other two policies will continue to be available as
gree with reference to the equatorial plane. independent policies. And I dont think it is going to make
IRNSS-1E carried navigation and ranging payloads, in- any major change in our overall approach.
cluding a rubidium atomic clock, C-band transponder and There has been an increased start-up activity
corner cube retro reflectors for laser ranging. The signal- in space related areas. How does the Depart-
in-space of four satellites has already been validated by ment of Space view the aspirations of start-
various agencies within and outside the country. ups and engage with them?
It is fantastic. In fact, we want to develop through aca-
Space Act will be in place soon, says demia, industry and others some of our requirements
ISRO Chairman which we cannot do as we are tied up with our activities.
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
Before this year-end, we plan to bring out two separate

mechanisms for promoting original activities by anybody Universes primordial soup recreated
or any entity outside the department. This is still an early Scientists have recreated the universes primordial soup
thinking that we should work out. in miniature format by colliding lead atoms with extremely
What is ISROs broad plan for industrys par- high energy in the worlds most powerful particle accel-
ticipation in its programmes? erator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
Globally a thousand satellites are estimated to be put up The primordial soup is a so-called quark-gluon plasma
in the next four years. There are opportunities for Indian and researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute in Den-
industry to participate in these activities. Building capac- mark, among others, have measured its liquid properties
ity within the country to deal with a growing space market with great accuracy at the LHCs top energy.
is also one of our activities. A few billionths of a second after the Big Bang, the uni-
Many industries that supply to ISRO are getting short- verse was made up of a kind of extremely hot and dense
listed to supply elsewhere. We provide them with support primordial soup of the most fundamental particles, espe-
infrastructure [on ISRO laboratories]; information, R&QA, cially quarks and gluons. This state is called quark-gluon
[reliability and quality assurance], etc. plasma. By colliding lead nuclei at a record-high energy
of 5.02 TeV in LHC, the 27 km-long LHC at CERN in Ge-
ISRO upbeat as indigenous cryo engine neva, it has been possible to recreate this state in the
passes test ALICE experiments detector and measure its properties.
Indian Space Research Organisations (ISRO) bid to ac- The analyses of the collisions make it possible, for the
quire the capability to launch heavier satellites into orbit first time, to measure the precise characteristics of quark-
received a boost on Friday with the successful hotbed gluon plasma at the highest energy ever and to deter-
test of the cryogenic engine for the upper stage of the mine how it flows, said You Zhou, who is a post-doc in
GSLV Mark 3 rocket. the ALICE research group at the Niels Bohr Institute.
The long-duration test at the ISRO Propulsion Research The focus has been on the quark-gluon plasmas col-
Centre at Mahendragiri lasted 640 seconds. lective properties, which show that this state of matter
Using Liquid Hydrogen at -253 degrees C and Liquid behaves more like a liquid than a gas, even at the very
Oxygen at -193 degrees C as propellants, the high-thrust highest energy densities.
cryogenic engine (CE20) generates power of approxi- The new measurements make it possible to determine
mately 2 MW. the viscosity of this exotic fluid with great precision.
Developed at the Liquid Propulsion System centre Mr. Zhou said the experimental method is very advanced
(LPSC), the engine had already undergone two short- and is based on the fact that when two spherical atomic
duration tests for engine ignition and steady state per- nuclei are shot at each other and hit each other a bit off
formance. centre, quark-gluon plasma is formed with a slightly elon-
Last year, the first developmental engine completed dif- gated shape somewhat like an American football.
ferent hot tests in various operating regimes. The third This means that the pressure difference between the
engine identified for flight use will be vacuum tested in centre of this extremely hot droplet and the surface var-
the high altitude test facility as part of the flight accept- ies along the different axes.
ance test.
Indian gravity wave detector 8 years
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
ISRO chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar termed the test as a

phenomenal achievement in the shortest time. away
Mr. Kumar also said that the preparations were under With the discovery of gravitational waves by the U.S.-
way for the first developmental flight of the GSLV Mark based LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave
3 in December 2016. He was talking to the media on the Observatory), Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have
sidelines of a workshop organised by the VSSC and the tweeted his support for a similar detector in India but
Society for Aerospace Quality and Reliability (SAQR). such a project is at least eight years away, said scientists
The biggest rocket made in India, the Mk3 will be ca- familiar with the project.
pable of launching four-tonne satellites into geosynchro- This is not counting the time it will take the Central gov-
nous orbit. ernment to clear the proposal, estimated to cost around
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
Rs. 1,200 crore, and is further premised on the project not nounced last week. C.V. Vishveshwara and BalaIyer, for-
running into environmental or State-level hurdles. Anoth- merly of the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, were
er ambitious mega-science project, the Indian Neutrino among the first to solve Einsteins equations to derive a
Observatory (INO) project a proposed, underground mathematical model to explain how colliding blackholes
observatory in Tamil Nadu to detect ephemeral particles would look and what tell-tale signals they emitted.
called neutrinos had been cleared by the Union gov- In later years, AnandSengupta of the Indian Institute of
ernment in 2015, after several years of deliberations, but Technology, Gandhinagar, developed methods to ensure
has been stalled for over a year due to protests by activist that both the LIGO detectors separated by 3,000 kilo-
groups, concerned over its environmental impact. metres have caught the same gravitational wave, and
SanjibMitra of the IUCAA, has found ways to tell apart
gravitational waves from various exotic stars.
NabaMondal, coordinator of the INO and a physicist at
the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, said the
INO being built a kilometre-and-a-half deep under
the ground and also employing a novel design was
a slightly more challenging project than INDIGO. The
delays we have faced so far are due to unfounded ob-
jections by some activist groups. These projects are im-
portant for the future of Indian science but require lot of
Scientists associated with the India-LIGO project (called support from government.
INDIGO) say that they have, since 2009, done consider-
able work in identifying suitable sites in India and met Gravitational wave astronomys finest
officials in several States. I have met the Chief Secre- moment
tary of Karnataka and others in many States they are The event where the announcement of the detection of
quite favourable to it [hosting a detector] said Tarun- gravitational waves was made was transmitted live at the
Souradeep, a key co-ordinator of INDIGO and physicist Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astro- (IUCAA) here. Representatives of the collaborating In-
physics (IUCAA). Eight years is our timeline based on dian institutions were present. The announcement was
extensive planning though it is possible to do it sooner received with thunderous applause here too because it
too, he told . was a proud moment for the Indian gravitational wave
INDIGO will be a replica of the two LIGO detectors and community as well.
many of its components have already been built and are Groups at IUCAA and the Raman Research Institute
ready to be shipped from the United States. (RRI), Bangalore, have made significant contribution in
The project was initially to be located in Australia but, the analysis of the LIGO data, which has enabled it to be
since 2011, scheduled to be located in India. At least 25 pinned down to a coalescence of two black holes consist-
sites were considered for the detector that will, most sali- ent with Einsteins theory.
ently, have two L-shaped four-kilometre-long arms. All Although indirect evidence for the existence of gravita-
of north India is ruled out as a potential site because of tional waves had been seen from the decaying orbital
its seismicity, as are the deserts of Jodhpur because of period of objects called binary pulsars which Russel
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
sandstorms the Deccan Plateau is best suited, said Hulse and Joseph Taylor discovered in 1974 and for
Mr. Souradeep. which they were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993 a
Third detector direct detection of gravitational waves had till now proved
Other than the benefit of having a third detector, which to be extremely difficult. This required enormous advanc-
will likely improve the chances of spotting gravitational es in technology to enable instruments with sensitivity
waves, an India detector would improve the chances of sufficient to detect distortions of space-time as tiny as 10-
novel, exciting discoveries being made out of India and 18 m, which is a thousandth of the diameter of a proton,
being made by Indians. and less. That is like measuring the distance between the
Indian scientists have, over 30 years, contributed sub- Earth and the nearest galaxy Andromeda, which is 2.5
stantially to the gravitational wave discovery that was an- million light years away, to hair-width precision.
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Vol. 05
This is what the upgraded or advanced LIGO, which According to him, the probability of it being a false alarm
began its first run only in September 2015, achieved is less than 2x10-7.
and within days it made this spectacular literally earth- The biggest victory for the Indian gravitational wave as-
shaking discovery. The gravitational wave signal struck tronomy community as a result of thediscovery has been
the detector on September 14, 2015, and the signal had the in-principle approval from Prime Minister Narendra
the unmistakable stamp of a black-hole binary merger, a Modi for setting up of the Indian component of the ad-
phenomenon that has been extensively studied through vanced LIGO, which has been hanging fire for more than
simulations. three years since the proposal was approved by the Na-
The LIGO is the most precise instrument that has ever tional Science Foundation (NSF), U.S.
been built. It consists of two identical L-shaped laser in- I
terferometer systems, one at Hanford in Washington and SRO to use electric propulsion system
one at Livingston in Louisiana. There are two systems on satellites in two years
to ensure that detection at both the instruments that are The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans
about 3000 km apart with the calculated time delay en- to use electric propulsion system on satellites for station
sures that the detected signal is not due to any spurious keeping and orbital manoeuvre in two years.
seismic signal or any other local vibration. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the two-day 10th
Each of the arms of the L is a 4 km tunnel in which laser International High Energy Materials Conference and Ex-
beams bounce back and forth between two highly sensi- hibition, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
tive suspended mirrors. The laser beams are tuned to (VSSC) K. Sivan said besides VSSC, Liquid Propul-
be perfectly in opposite phase so that there is total in- sion Systems Centre (LPSC) and ISRO Satellite Centre
terference when the beams arrive at the intersection of (ISAC) were working on developing electric propulsion
the arms and no light passes through the beam splitter system for use on satellites.
at the intersection into the photo-detector behind. But In two years, we may be able to achieve it, he said.
when a gravitational wave passes through the detector, He said the cryogenic engine for GSLV Mark-III will be un-
the space-time gets distorted much like a squeezed ball, dergoing stage-level test soon and the target to achieve
oscillating between the two states compressed in one di- flight test is December this year.
rection and elongated in the other. So the effect of this Regarding Chandrayaan-II, he said the objective was to
oscillatory compression of one arm and elongation of the land a rover on the moon and carry out in-situ experi-
other is that there is no total cancellation of the interfering ments. ISRO was also developing various technologies
laser beams and a net signal gets through to the photo- required for a manned mission, which was yet to be ap-
detector. proved by the government.
According to Gabriela Gonzalez, the chief spokesperson Director of High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, a
of the LIGO at Livingston, the signal was received pre- DRDO facility, K.P.S. Murthy said their lab was develop-
cisely 7 miliseconds later as calculated. The coincidence ing a table-mounted explosive detection kit, which could
is remarkable she said. be used for detecting explosives, including deeply con-
The total signal lasted for about 0.4 s with the ringing cealed ones. He said the Advanced Centre of Research
down that is characteristic of two orbiting black holes in high Energy Materials, University of Hyderabad, was
in-spiralling towards each other, shrinking of the orbit, collaborating in the project. The kit could be used in air-
merger of the two, coalescence and finally settling down ports and other places.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
as a single black hole, he said. Earlier addressing the conference, Dr. Satish Kumar, Di-
The data is consistent with one black hole with 36 solar rector-General (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO,
masses merging with another of 29 solar masses giv- said rapid changes were taking place in warfare technol-
ing rise to a single black hole of 62 solar masses. A total ogy and called upon researchers to work on developing
energy of 1049 watts, equivalent to the missing 3 solar insensitive munitions.
masses, has been radiated away as gravitational waves.
This would be the most luminous astronomical source Jupiter doesnt t shield Earth from comet
ever observed noted P. Ajith of the International Centre impacts: Study
for Theoretical Sciences, Bangalore, who is part of LIGO The widely reported Jupiter as shield concept, imply-
collaboration and was involved in the analysis. ing that the planet shields Earth from comet impacts, is
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
incorrect, says a new study published in the journal As- bright. Together these nine stars outshine the Sun by a
trobiology . factor of 30 million.
The scientists were also able to study outflows from
Hubble discovers largest sample of these behemoths, which are most readily studied in the
monster stars ultraviolet.They eject up to an Earth mass of material per
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Tel- month at a speed approaching one per cent of the speed
escope have identified nine monster stars with masses of light, resulting in extreme weight loss throughout their
over 100 times that of our Sun in the star cluster located brief lives.
about 170,000 light-years away. The ability to distinguish ultraviolet light from such an ex-
The discovery is the largest sample of very massive stars ceptionally crowded region into its component parts, re-
identified to date, researchers said. solving the signatures of individual stars, was only made
Scientists using the unique ultraviolet (UV) capabilities possible with the instruments aboard Hubble, said lead
of Hubble combined images taken with the Wide Field author Paul Crowther from the University of Sheffield .
Camera 3 with the unprecedented UV spatial resolution The results gathered from R136 and from other clusters
of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) to also raise many new questions about the formation of
successfully dissect the young star cluster R136 in the massive stars as the origin of these behemoths remains
ultraviolet for the first time. unclear.
There have been suggestions that these monsters re-
sult from the merger of less extreme stars in close binary
systems, said Saida Caballero-Nieves, from University
of Sheffield.
From what we know about the frequency of massive
mergers, this scenario cant account for all the really
massive stars that we see in R136, so it would appear
that such stars can originate from the star formation pro-
cess, she said.
An analysis of new optical STIS observations will also
allow them to search for close binary systems in R136,
which could produce massive black hole binaries which
would ultimately merge, producing gravitational waves.
Chinas first dark matter satellite

concludes in-orbit testing
Chinas first dark matter detection satellite has completed
three months of in-orbit testing and found 460 million high
energy particles in a 92-day flight, officials said.
The satellites initial findings are expected to appear be-
R136 is only a few light-years across and is located in fore the end of the year as it has completed three months
the Tarantula Nebula within the Large Magellanic Cloud, of in-orbit testing, the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
about 170,000 light-years away.The young cluster hosts (CAS) said.

many extremely massive, hot and luminous stars whose Dark matter is an invisible material that makes up most of
energy is mostly radiated in the UV. the universes mass.
The researchers found dozens of stars exceeding 50 Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) Satellite Wu-
solar masses, as well as nine very massive stars in the kong detected 460 million high energy particles in a
cluster, all more than 100 times more massive as the Sun. 92-day flight and sent about 2.4 TB of raw data back to
However, the current record holder R136a1 does keep its Earth, DAMPE chief Scientist Chang Jin said.
place as the most massive star known in the universe, at Launched on December 17 last year on a Long March
over 250 solar masses, researchers said.The detected 2D rocket, Wukong was handed over to the CAS Purple
stars are not only extremely massive, but also extremely Mountain Observatory.
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Vol. 05
The four major parts of the payload, a plastic scintillator radio wavelengths received by ALMA.
array detector, a silicon array detector, a BGO calorim- The new VLA images revealed a distinct clump of dust in
eter and a neutron detector, functioned satisfactorily. the inner region of the disk that contains roughly three to
The satellite completed all set tests with all its technical eight times the mass of Earth.
indicators reaching or exceeding expectations, state-run We believe this clump of dust represents the earliest
Xinhua news agency reported. stage in the formation of protoplanets, and this is the first
Wukong is designed for a three-year mission. It will time we have seen that stage, said Thomas Henning
scan space non-stop in all directions in the first two years from Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA).
and then focus on areas where dark matter is most likely This is an important discovery, because we have not
to be observed in the third. yet been able to observe most stages in the process of
The CAS released a report on the future of space sci- planet formation, said Carlos Carrasco-Gonzalez from
ence promising major progress and breakthroughs by the Institute of Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics (IRyA)
2030 in research into the formation and evolution of the in Mexico.
universe and the search for extraterrestrial life.It will also This region, the scientists said, is presumably where
strive to find new physical laws that supplant current ba- Earth-like planets would form, as clumps of dust grow by
sic theories. The goals will be achieved by manned and pulling in material from their surroundings. Eventually, the
unmanned programmes, including a black hole probe, a clumps would gather enough mass to form solid bodies
Mars probe and extraterrestrial life exploration. that would continue to grow into planets.
Chinese lawmakers approved the countrys economic
and social development blueprint for the 2016-2020 pe- Fresh crew docks at ISS for Mars
riod, including research on the origins of the universe and research
life.The Satellite was given the moniker Wukong name Three Expedition 47 crew members docked safely at
after the Monkey King from the Chinese classical fiction the International Space Station (ISS) where they would
Journey to the West. spend five months to continue the key research that ad-
vances NASAs Journey to Mars, the U.S. space agency
A look into planet formation said.
Astronomers studied the new images of a young star tak- NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, with Alexey Ovchinin and
en by the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and said Oleg Skripochka of the Russian space agency Roscos-
it reveals very early stages of planet formation. mos launched aboard a Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft from
The scientists used the VLA to see unprecedented detail the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, orbited Earth
of the inner portion of a dusty disk surrounding the star, four times, and docked at the station.
nearly 450 light years from Earth. Williams is now the first American to become a three-
The star and its disk were studied in 2014 with Atacama time, long-term resident of the ISS. The arrival of Wil-
Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which pro- liams, Ovchinin and Skripochka returns the stations crew
duced what astronomers then called the best image ever complement to six, NASA said.
of planet formation in progress, National Radio Astrono- The three join Expedition 47 Commander Tim Kopra of
my Observatory posted online. NASA and Flight Engineers Tim Peake of ESA (Europe-
The ALMA image showed gaps in the disk, presumably an Space Agency) and Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos,
caused by planet-like bodies sweeping out the dust along they said.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
their orbits. The Expedition 47 crew members will spend five months
This image showed in real life what theorists had pro- conducting more than 250 science investigations in fields
posed for years. However, scientists were surprised to that benefit all of humanity, such as biology, earth sci-
see this phenomenon because the star, called HL Tau, ence, human research, physical sciences and technol-
is only about a million years old very young by stellar ogy development.
standards. Realistic fire scenarios
The ALMA image showed details of the system in the out- Investigations arriving on Orbital ATKs fifth NASA-con-
er portions of the disk, but in the inner portions, nearest tracted commercial resupply mission in late March will
to the young star, the thicker dust is opaque to the short include a study of realistic fire scenarios on a spacecraft,
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Vol. 05
enable the first space-based observations of meteors ics (LASP).
entering Earths atmosphere from space, explore how Studying the microscopic dust grains can give research-
regolith, or soil, behaves and moves in microgravity, ers clues about how the solar system was formed bil-
NASA said. lions of years ago and how it works today, providing in-
The study will also test a gecko-inspired adhesive grip- formation on planets, moons and comets, said Bagenal.
ping device that can stick on command in the harsh en- Launched in 2006, the New Horizons mission was de-
vironment of space, and add a new 3D printer for use signed to help scientists understand better the icy world
on station. at the edge of our solar system, including Pluto and the
Expedition 47 crew members also are expected to re- Kuiper Belt.
ceive the first expandable habitat, which will allow NASA A vast region thought to span more than a billion miles
its first test of an innovative habitat concept that can sup- beyond Neptunes orbit, the Kuiper Belt is believed to
port astronauts who live and work in the harsh environ- harbour at least 70,000 objects more than 96 kilometres
ment of space. in diameter and contain samples of ancient material cre-
BEAM ated during the solar systems violent formation some
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is an 4.5 billion years ago.
experimental expandable module scheduled for delivery The Student Dust Counter (SDC) logged thousands of
on SpaceXs eighth NASA-contracted cargo resupply dust grain hits over the spacecrafts nine year, 3 billion-
mission this spring. mile journey to Pluto while most of other six instruments
Although astronauts will not live in BEAM, it will be at- slept, said Professor MihalyHoranyi from LASP.
tached to the space station, expanded and tested for a Now we are starting to see a slow but steady increase
minimum two-year demonstration, and crew members in the impact rate of larger particles, possibly indicating
will enter periodically to evaluate performance of the that we already have entered the inner edge of the Kui-
habitat, NASA said. per Belt, said Horanyi, the principal investigator for the
NASA is considering the use of expandable habitats to SDC.
support crew members travelling to an asteroid, Mars The dust counter is a thin film resting on a honeycombed
and other destinations. An expandable habitat such as aluminium structure the size of a cake pan mounted on
BEAM takes up less room on a rocket, while allowing the spacecrafts exterior.
additional volume for living and working in space, they A small electronic box functions as the instruments
said. brain to assess each individual dust particle that strikes
Expedition 47 is the current and 47th expedition to the the detector, allowing the students to infer the mass of
ISS. each particle.
Our instrument has been soaring through our solar
Space around Pluto nearly dust free: systems dust disk and gathering data since launch,
NASA said Jamey Szalay, a former CUBoulder student, now
Space environment around Pluto and its moons is al- postdoctoral researcher at Southwest Research Institute
most empty, containing only about six dust particles per (SwRI).
cubic mile, according to data collected by a student-built Its going to be very exciting to get into the Kuiper Belt
instrument riding on NASAs New Horizons spacecraft. and see what we find there, said Szalay.
The spacecraft found only a handful of dust grains, the NASA to set fire in space
building blocks of planets, when it whipped by Pluto at NASAs John H Glenn Research Centre is going to light
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
about 49,000 kilometres per hour July last year, scien- a large-scale fire in space as part of an experiment that
tists said. seeks to understand how fire spreads in a micro-gravity
The bottom line is that space is mostly empty, said environment.
Fran Bagenal, a professor at University of Colorado Called the Spacecraft Fire Experiment (Saffire), the ex-
Boulder, who leads the New Horizons Particles and periment on board the next Orbital/ATK Cygnus cargo
Plasma Team. mission will begin after the unmanned resupply vehicle
Any debris created when Plutos moons were captured will undock the International Space Station (ISS) after
or created during impacts has long since been removed dropping key science supplies.
by planetary processes, said Bagenai, a faculty mem- Saffire I, II, and III will launch separately in 2016 aboard
ber at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Phys- resupply missions to the ISS. But they will not be un-
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Vol. 05
loaded and after the Orbital/ATK Cygnus pulls far away planetary companions.
from the space station, the experiments will begin, NASA HIP8541b is the most massive of the newly found plan-
Glenn said. ets. With a mass of about 5.5 Jupiter masses, this ex-
The fire will take place in a box full of cotton-fibreglass oplanet also has a much longer orbital period than the
composite and the data generated from the experiment other three worlds, equal to 1,560 days.Its parent star is
will be beamed back to Earth before Cygnus starts re- slightly more massive than the Sun and has a radius of
entry. Instruments on the returning Cygnus will measure nearly eight solar radii.
flame growth, oxygen use and more. HIP74890b and HIP84056b are very similar in terms of
NASA scientists know that flames can be erratic in space mass and orbital period. The mass of HIP74890b is esti-
but they dont fully understand their properties and me- mated to be 2.4 Jupiter masses.
chanics. HIP84056b has an orbital period lasting nearly 819 days
NASAs commercial partner Orbital ATK will also be about three fewer days than the other planet.
launching its Cygnus spacecraft into orbit atop a United Their host stars are also of similar mass and size, about
Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for its fifth contracted re- 1.7 the mass of the Sun, with a radius of 5.03 (HIP84056)
supply mission to the ISS. and 5.77 (HIP74890) solar radii.
The flight, known as Orbital ATK CRS-6, will deliver in- Among the exoplanets, HIP95124b has the shortest
vestigations to the space station to study fire, meteors, orbital period of 562 days. It has a mass of 2.9 Jupiter
regolith, adhesion, and 3D printing in microgravity. masses and orbits a star nearly two times more massive
Results could determine microgravity flammability limits than the Sun, with a radius of 5.12 solar radii.
for several spacecraft materials, help to validate NASAs The discovery of these planets also yielded interesting
material selection criteria, and help scientists understand results about correlations between the stellar properties
how microgravity and limited oxygen affect flame size. and the occurrence rate of planets.
A less heated investigation called MeteorComposition-
Determination will enable the first space-based observa- Countdown begins to launch mission to
tions of meteors entering Earths atmosphere from space. find life on Mars
From grounded to gripping, another investigation launch- In a bid to begin a new era of Mars exploration for Eu-
ing takes its inspiration from small lizards. The Geck- rope, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Rus-
oGripper investigation tests a gecko-adhesive gripping sian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) are set to send
device that can stick on command in the harsh environ- a robotic probe to Mars to find if the planet has traces of
ment of space. alien life.
Named ExoMars 2016, the ESA-Roscosmos mission is
Four giant exoplanets discovered set to lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
Astronomers have discovered four new giant exoplanets, on a Russian Proton rocket, marking the start of a seven-
with masses from 2.4 to 5.5 times that of Jupiter, orbiting month journey to the Red Planet.
stars much bigger than our Sun. The first phase of the mission will have the Trace Gas Or-
The newly detected worlds are enormous and have very biter (TGO) and Schiaparelli lander an entry, descent
long orbital periods ranging from nearly two to slightly and landing demonstrator.
more than four Earth years. The TGO will make a detailed inventory of Mars atmos-
The researchers, led by Matias Jones of the Pontifical pheric gases, with particular interest in rare gases like
Catholic University of Chile, used the 1.5 m telescope at methane, which implies that there is an active, current
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and the 2.2 source.

m telescope at La Silla observatory in Chile, and the 3.9 TGO aims to measure its geographical and seasonal de-
m Anglo-Australian telescope in Australia. pendence and help to determine whether it stems from a
Using spectrographs mounted on these telescopes, the geological or biological source, the ESA said in a state-
researchers monitored a sample of 166 bright giant stars ment.
observable from the southern hemisphere. They com- Meanwhile, Schiaparelli will demonstrate a range of tech-
puted a series of precision radial velocities of four giant nologies to enable a controlled landing on Mars in prepa-
stars HIP8541, HIP74890, HIP84056 and HIP95124. ration for future missions.
According to them, these velocities show periodic signal After a seven-month cruise, the lander will separate from
variations, that could be explained by the presence of the TGO on October 16 and land on Mars on October 19
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Vol. 05
for several days of activities. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in-
The TGO will then enter orbit around the Red Planet tends to more than double its launches a year, and get
ahead of its exciting multi-year science mission.It will on board industries to build entire satellites and partner
also serve as a data relay for the second ExoMars mis- in rocket integration by taking bigger stakes, its Chair-
sion, comprising a rover and a surface science plat- man A. S. Kiran Kumar has said.
form, planned for launch in 2018. It will also provide India currently has 34 satellites in space but this num-
data relay for NASA rovers. ber falls short of the countrys need to generate infor-
Its a milestone that caps off several years of prepara- mation, both on earth observation and communication
tion for any complex mission designing, building and fronts, said Mr. Kumar, who is also Secretary in the De-
testing the ground systems, preparing the flight opera- partment of Space and Chairman, Space Commission.
tions procedures and then finally an intensive period of We have already reached seven launches in a year.
team training, said Paolo Ferri, head of mission opera- We intend to increase it to almost 12 launches a year...
tions. immediately (subsequently) following to reach up to
Readying to conduct the ExoMars mission comes at a 18 launches a year, he said, delivering a lecture at
time when ESAs operations teams are seeing histori- the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), Hyderabad
cally high level of activity. branch, last evening, but did not giveany time-frame.
Twelve missions, for a total of 17 spacecraft, are now in We need to build capacity and this capacity-building is
flight, spanning science, Earth observation, orbiting ob- going to happen with attempts by bringing in industry to
servatories and Europes Galileo and Copernicus pro- use the launch vehicles (rockets of ISRO).
grammes, while nine new missions are being prepared. Today we are working on mechanisms for ensuring that
In 2016, at least five new missions are expected to be the industry would be able to build and launch satellites
launched - a record for ESOC plus two spectacular using the launch vehicles in our Sriharikota launch pad.
interplanetary highlights in the autumn: ExoMars arriv- Industry participation, for example raw materials, fabri-
al at Mars, and the controlled impact of Rosetta on its cation, is happening and vehicle integration is planned
comet, added Rolf Densing, ESAs director for opera- for near future. We are in discussion with industries.
tions. We are trying to make industries to take bigger stakes
NASAs Curiosity rover and the ESAs Mars Express in the space programmes, Mr. Kiran Kumar said. ISRO
satellite have detected traces of the methane gas in is working on a mechanism with the industry on sharing
Mars atmosphere. Ground-based telescopes spotted responsibility, both in terms of investment and in areas
methane on Mars in 2003. of co-development and co-innovation.
Since methane can be the product of biological activ- G. Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Adviser to the Defence
ity practically all the existing methane in the Earths Minister, said AeSI has approached its counterparts in
atmosphere originates in this way this has created advanced nations, inviting companies there to set up
great expectations that Martian methane could also be shop in India in areas of aerospace sector where the
of a similar origin. country is not strong, in partnership with desi firms,
It is a finding that puts paid to the question of the pres- as part of the Make in India push. Mr. Reddy, who is
ence of methane in the Martian atmosphere but it does the Chairman of AeSIs Hyderabad branch, said the So-
pose some other more complex and farreaching ciety has written letter to them (counterparts in other
questions, such as the nature of its sources, explained countries) listing areas in the sector where India needs
Francisco Javier MartinTorres from the Andalusian collaboration.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
Institute of Earth Sciences (CSICUGR) at the Univer-

sity of Granada, Spain.
According to some current models, if there really ex-
isted methane in Mars, it would remain there for an
average 300 years and during this period, it would be
homogeneously distributed across the atmosphere.
I
SRO plans to double launches, asks
industry for bigger stakes
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Vol. 05
cut off even if a small part of the panel is covered by
ATOMIC ENERGY shade, only that part of the thin film panel that is not ex-
posed to sunlight stops producing power.
Basil Energetics also manufactures electrical appliances
that run on both direct current (DC) and alternating cur-
New n-plant in autonomous region rent (AC). The driver circuitry designed by Basil and more
The first nuclear power plant located in one of Chinas efficient motors manufactured by the company are used
ethnic autonomous regions has begun commercial op- in the air conditioner, refrigerator and fan. Also, the re-
eration. The first reactor of the Fangchenggang Nuclear frigerator and air conditioner use a motor that runs on
Power Plant in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region can a variable speed compressor. Our fans consume only
supply 24 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a day, cater- 20 watts [normal fans need 75 watts] and a 1.5 tonne
ing to the needs of a medium-sized city air conditioner requires only 1,200 watts initially and then
. run at 250-260 watts. The average consumption is only
Now, solar energy can power air condi- 333 watts, while normal air conditioners always need
tioner, refrigerator 1,650 watts, he said. Our refrigerators consume only
Making a marked departure from the conventional sys- 40 watts, while conventional ones consume 150 watts.
tem, a Chennai-based company provides a comprehen- But the brain of the whole system is a smart grid (iGrid)
sive system that ensures that a 2 kW solar panel can that manages the load by monitoring the power availabil-
power a 1.5 tonne air conditioner, one 300 litre refrigera- ity in the panel on one hand and load demand on the
tor, five fans, five LED tube lights (4 feet in length and 16 other to ensure smooth functioning in four different sce-
watts each) and eight LED bulbs (6 watts each) during narios. All appliances are run on panel-produced power
the day. when there is adequate power, but when the demand is
There are many innovative systems that make this pos- higher than the power produced, the iGrid runs as many
sible. In lieu of silicon crystalline panels that are routinely appliances as possible using solar power and the re-
used, Basil Energetics Pvt Ltd uses thin film solar panels. maining from the grid. During the night, the iGrid draws
Though efficiency of thin film panel is the same as silicon power from the grid while excess power produced during
panel at 25C, the energy yield of thin film is higher than the day (when all appliances are not used) is fed to the
silicon panel. grid. This management is done automatically, Dr Ra-
marathnam said. A battery can also be connected to the
iGrid to run the appliances in the night.
Since the appliances use less power than conventional
ones, the area of the thin film panel required is less. A thin
film panel of 160 sq. feet area can provide 2 kW power
when appliances manufactured by Basil are used, a 400
sq. feet area silicon panel is required in the case of con-
ventional appliances, he said.
In the case of 2 kW capacity the investment would work
out to Rs.4,20,000 for the panel, iGrid, and appliances
and installation. The payback period will be 5-5.5 years
This is because power rating is done at 25C. In India, depending on usage and tariff, he said. It works out to
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
the outside temperature far exceeds 25C, especially Rs.1,10,000 in the case of 330 watts that can power a
during summer. And for every 1Cincrease in tempera- 180 litre refrigerator, three fans, two tube lights and two
ture, the loss in power rating is 0.5 per cent in the case bulbs.The company has so far completed 24 projects in a
of silicon panels; it is only 0.25 per cent with thin films. short span of 13 months.
So 5 per cent more energy output is achieved by thin
film panels, said Dr. R. Ramarathnam, Chairman of Basil IIT-M: turning metal waste into resource
Energetics. Solar panels need light not heat. Thats why Researchers at IIT Madras have successfully turned
they are more efficient in higher latitudes. Ti6Al4V alloy waste-shavings that are produced when a
Another advantage with the thin film panel is that unlike metal is machinedinto resource using low-cost means.
silicon panels where power production gets completely Shavings produced in aerospace machining operations
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Vol. 05
are usually disposed as low-volume scrap. But research- (EAST), an artificial sun experiment developed by He-
ers at IIT Madras have tuned the shaving into foils (3 mm fei Institute of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy
width and 1 mm thickness) that are 1.5 times harder than of Science, realised a ultra-high temperature (UHT) long
the parent material. pulse plasma discharge for 102 seconds.
An artificial sun can provide limitless clean energy through
controlled thermonuclear fusion. The light and heat of the
Sun come from two of hydrogens radioactove isotopes
deuterium and tritium.These release a huge amount of
energy during the process of fusion into a helium atom.
The artificial sun imitates this fusion process.
Nuclear power in Japan post Fukushima
When the Fukushima accident occurred on March 11,
2011, Japan had 50+ nuclear power reactors which pro-
vided about 30 per cent of the countrys electricity. The
World Nuclear Association (WNA) noted that this was ex-
pected to increase to at least 40 per cent by 2017. The
devastating accident changed all that. Japan shut down
all its reactors.
As on December 2015, Japan has 43 operable reactors
with potential to restart; twenty-three of them have started
Researchers in the past have produced shavings with the process to restart approvals. The first two restarted in
hardness up to three times that of the bulk material us- August 2015 (Sandai 1) and October 2015(Sandai 2).
ing the machining approach. Shavings produced when a While Japan observes the fifth anniversary of the nuclear
bulk material is machined under controlled laboratory are accident, there is slow and steady progress in examining
extensively strain deformed. As a result, the coarse grain whether some more of the nuclear power plants which
structure of the bulk material becomes ultrafine grained are presently shut down comply with the new nuclear
in the shavings. It is already known that nanostructured safety standards.
materials composed of sub-micrometer scale grains have The Nuclear Regulatory Authority effectively approved
properties that are much different from conventional ma- Takahama-1 and two other nuclear power plants both
terials. of which have already been operated for more than 40
In this case, the fine grain structure of the shavings en- years as compatible with the new regulatory stand-
dows them with increased hardness and greater strength; ards.
malleability and ductility get reduced but not significantly. The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum reports that these are
To take advantage of the enhanced physical properties of the first such determinations for so-called aging reactors.
the shavings, they attached a die extrusion to the cutting They have to clear examinations and to get approvals for
tool so that the shaving gets extruded in the form of foils. extensions of their operating lifetimes.
The fabrication and characterisation of the new material On February 26, this year the Kansai Electric Power Co
has been performed in order to look for 23 applications. restarted its Takahama 4 (870MWe) nuclear power plant
One would be to use smaller particles as reinforcement and Takahama 3 (870MWe) which they restarted on Jan-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
in composite. Using the foils as wear padding is another uary 29 was returned to commercial service.
possible application. Industry and the ruling political class favour restart as
they consider nuclear power as reliable, affordable and
Man-made sun produces longest pulse essential to ensure Japans energy security.Japan now
at 50 million degrees constructs four reactors and decommissions or is set to
In a breakthrough, a man-made sun experiment in China decommission 15. It has planned (9) and proposed (4)
has successfully produced long pulse plasma discharge new reactors with a total capacity of 17,092 MWe
at a temperature of more than 50 million degreesthe In June 2014, three major lobbies of hard-nosed busi-
longest discharge at such a high temperature. ness men the Japan Business Federation (Keidan-
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak ren), the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and
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Vol. 05
the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) sought an early restart of all nuclear reactors.
The stark reality is that over 90 per cent of Japans primary energy needs are now met by import.
In 2010, Japans per capita annual power consumption stood at 7870 kWh dropping to 7480 kWh/capita in 2013.
Though all nuclear power plants were shut down, the Japanese continued to lead an energy intensive life.
On May 11, 2015, four years after the Fukushima nuclear accident, a panel of nuclear experts largely approved a
government report saying that atomic power remains the cheapest source of electricity despite the rising safety costs
triggered by the 2011 Fukushima core meltdowns. Though the Government expects a glut in solar power, it wants
to make nuclear power account for 20 to 22 per cent of Japans electricity supply by 2030. The Japanese Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), estimates that atomic power would cost at least 10.3 per kilowatt-hour in 2030.
Additional safety measures required to run a nuclear reactor would cost an average of 60.1 billion. The cost of
coal-fired power is 12.9 per kWh; liquefied natural gas 13.4 per kWh; Wind power 34.7; solar power up to 16.4,
geothermal power 16.8, and hydropower up to 27.1 per kWh, all of them much higher than nuclear.
The cost of electricity estimated by the Institute of Energy Economics of Japan in 2011 included compensation of up
to 10 trillion ($130 billion) for loss or damage from a nuclear accident (WNA, Dec 2015), 0.2 for additional post-
Fukushima safety measures and 0.5 for dealing with future nuclear risks. The 0.5 for future nuclear risks is a mini-
mum, increasing by 0.1 for each additional 1 trillion ($13 billion) of damage.
The public perception in Japan may be against nuclear power. But in December 2012, the pronuclear Liberal Demo-
cratic Party (LDP) got 294 out of 480 seats with the anti-nuclear group trailing behind with 57 seats in the lower house
of Diet. The LDP and its pronuclear partner secured 144 seats in 242 in the upper house in the July 2013 election.
The Japanese Government pledged to reduce reliance on nuclear power and promote renewable energy as much
as possible, while standing by nuclear as a key power source, citing the importance of a stable electricity supply to
economic growth. Because of its economic importance, decision makers will benignly look at nuclear power.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
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Vol. 05
The climate models, being developed by the Earth Sci-
ENVIRONMENT ences Ministry, will be prepared by the Pune-based Cen-
tre for Climate Change Research.
AND ECOLOGY These are so-called dynamic models that rely on super-
computers to compute the weather on a given day and
simulate how it would evolve over days, months and
Construction technology Smart and even years. These models, developed in the United
eco-friendly States, have over few years been customised to Indian
The demand for cost-effective, yet environmentally conditions. Their ability to predict the Indian monsoon
friendly homes will be met by switching to alternative has consistently improved over the years, said Mr. Ra-
construction materials such as recycled fly ash, interlock- jeevan, and now over the next few years they should be
ing bricks, hollow concrete blocks, rubble filler blocks, able to project climate over the decades.
stabilised mud-based blocks and funicular (or rope-like)
shells. Giant lizards trained to stop eating toxic
Such a shift can reduce the construction material costs toads
by a minimum of 10-15 per cent and skilled manpower Australian scientists have said they had devised an in-
expenses and construction time can be cut short by 20 novative method of conservation through feeding giant
per cent. Green building materials which are economical monitor lizards small cane toads so they wont be killed
when used in large-scale developments will be used by by larger-sized amphibians.
developers to build budget homes. Cane toads, an invasive species from Central and South
America that were introduced to Australia in 1935, are so
Indian climate models to aid future IPCC toxic that they can kill the predators that try to eat them
reports and are continuing to spread across northern Australia at
India will have its own climate change models to project an estimated 40-60 kilometres a year.
the impact of global warming over the decades and these But researchers from the University of Sydney said they
will form part of the forthcoming Sixth Intergovernmental were able to teach free-ranging goannas in the Kimberley
Panel on Climate Change Reports that is expected to be wilderness in northwestern Australia to avoid eating the
available in 2020. toxic toads about to invade the remote floodplain.
The IPCC reports there have been five so far since The scientists offered small, non-lethal cane toads to
1988 are coordinated by the United Nations and bring the wild yellow-spotted monitors which have experi-
together the scientific consensus on the causes and im- enced a 90 percent plunge in population following toad
pact of climate change. They also assess the extent to invasions with further trials confirming just one or two
which the globe is expected to warm up over the medium toad meals were enough to convince a goanna not to eat
and long term. another toad.
We will be working on our own models and projections The goannas quickly learnt to avoid the adult cane toads
and have to make our first submission by 2018, said in the wild after being exposed to the younger, smaller
MadhavanRajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Scienc- toads.
es, at the Indian Science Congress. After training, giant monitor lizards, known as goannas,
Crucial at Paris summit survived when the toads arrived, whereas untrained liz-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
The IPCCs fifth report in 2014, was critical in shaping the ards were immediately killed, lead researcher Georgia
resolution at the recently concluded climate talks in Paris Ward-Fear said of the study, which was published in the
that all countries developed and developing had Biology Letters journal.
to, over time, do their bit to contain their greenhouse gas Our study provides the proof of principle required to set
emissions to keep ensure that mean global temperatures the framework for an innovative method of conservation,
did not rise beyond 1.5 to 2 degree of temperature in the the researchers added in their paper.
19th century. Releasing small toads, then, can offer a simple land-
As per the Paris Agreement, which will come into effect scape-scale method to conserve wildlife populations, by
in 2020, India and several other countries will have report giving native predators an opportunity to learn rather than
their emissions as well as detailed plans to curb them. die. The study provides the first real evidence that this
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Vol. 05
strategy is realistic. cover increased by 45 per cent in the past century. But
what happens to the south Asian monsoon if say, both
Aerosols, land-use changes may greatly aerosols and GHGs are present in the atmosphere and if
weaken monsoon land-use effect (albedo, cooling of land) is present along
The South Asian Monsoon has been weakening since with say, GHGs?
the 1950s with an increased incidence of extreme rainfall It would be difficult to explain the combined effect of any
events. Now, a paper in the journal Climate Dynamics by of these forcings, said Dr.Deepti Singh, Postdoctoral
Dr. R. Krishnan, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Fellow, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia
Pune, attributes this weakening to increased greenhouse University and the author of a News & Views article in Na-
gas (GHG) emissions, atmospheric aerosols and land- ture Climate Change . There is still more to do in under-
use changes. standing how these will individually affect the monsoon
The monsoon is mainly driven by thermal contrast be- so I can only really speculate without data about how
tween the Indian subcontinent and the adjoining ocean they would interact. We can turn to models to simulate
and the resultant moisture-laden winds from the ocean. the combined effects of these forcings. Few modelling
This scenario, however is changed due to the presence studies have done so. The net effect of these different
of greenhouse gases, aerosols in the atmosphere or if forcings depends on their relative magnitudes.
the land has been subjected to increased deforestation. According to her, the study shows that in the absence
GHGs trap the heat over land and sea and result in both of GHG forcing, the monsoon circulation would have
the land and sea being warm, that is the thermal contrast strengthened and some regions would experience en-
is greatly reduced. This leads to a weakening of the mon- hanced rainfall. However, since there were aerosol, land-
soon circulation and the result is a weakened monsoon. use and GHG forcing that have opposite effects on the
However, a warmed up atmosphere can hold more mois- monsoon circulation and rainfall, the overall response of
ture and this situation can result in heavy rainfall over the monsoon has been muted. Just aerosol and land-
some regions. use changes would likely lead to a greater weakening
Anthropogenic atmospheric aerosols, including sul- of the monsoon than has been observed in recent dec-
phates, black carbon, nitrates and dust accumulate over ades, she underlined.
the Indo-Gangetic plains. These reduce incoming solar A green world in Keralas laterite hills
radiation over northern India and the northern Indian Under their barren look, the laterite hills in northern Ker-
Ocean and lead to cooling on both land and sea resulting ala conceal patches of biodiversity-rich small groves,
in a lowered thermal contrast. known as Kanam in local parlance.
Hence, monsoon winds and circulation are weakened as With ecological significance of these hills remaining un-
both land and sea are cooled. Evaporation is also sup- known, Kanams are recorded as waste lands in revenue
pressed. Over South Asia, over 50 per cent of aerosol records and often assigned to development projects.
emissions are caused by biomass and agricultural burn- Mining too is damaging this system. As the laterite hills
ing. There is mounting evidence of the emissions from are recorded as waste land since it is not productive for
South Asia and China in changing the timing, spatial dis- agriculture there is the tendency to allot these areas to
tribution and strength of the monsoon. large-scale projects, which leads to the destruction of the
However, negative impacts of these aerosols can be re- unique ecosystem, pointed out Dr.SreejithNamboodiri
duced quickly as they have a short lifetime of few weeks from the Kerala Forest Research Institute in Thrissur.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
compared to GHGs which can stay in the atmosphere for Realising the ecological relevance of the ecosystems
up to 80 years. supported by Kanams, which dont enjoy any legal protec-
A third, and nevertheless important, contributor to mon- tion, a group of scientists of the Kerala Forest Research
soon weakening is the albedo effect of deforestation by Institute, Kerala, have taken a green step to protect them.
humans. Reduced land cover increases the reflectivity The team including Dr.Namboodiri and V. B. Sreekumar
(albedo effect) which leads to cooling of land in contrast and two research scholars who surveyed and mapped
to the ocean and results in a weakened monsoon circula- some of the Kanams, have suggested a new concept
tion. known as Eco-Grove as the first step towards its clas-
This could be particularly important over south Asia as sification and conservation. The concept was presented
tree fraction has decreased by 30 per cent and crop in an international conference on biodiversity.
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Vol. 05
The team attempted to define the newly identified eco- ice sheet has probably been carved out by water and is
system which does not come under the ambit of any of either so ancient that it was there before the ice sheet
the existing systems. It is defined as man-made or natu- grew or it was created by water flowing and eroding be-
ral systems dominated by trees and protected by an indi- neath the ice.
vidual or community with or without any rituals or beliefs This is a region of the Earth that is bigger than the UK
attached to them or law enforced by authorities. and yet we still know little about what lies beneath the
It is protected by locals who have realised the ecological ice, Jamieson added.
significances of Kanams and services rendered by the In fact, the bed of Antarctica is less well known than the
system, explained a scientific paper by the researchers. surface of Mars.
The floral diversity of four Kanams (Kanayi, Vannathi, If we can gain better knowledge of the buried landscape,
Easwaran, and Vattappoyil) in the Kavvayi River Basin we will be better equipped to understand how the ice
caught the researchers by surprise. They were able to sheet responds to changes in climate, he noted.
document 452 plant species in these four Kanams. Of Faint traces of the canyons were observed using satellite
these, 56 were endemic to the area and 35 were endemic imagery.
to Western Ghats. They also reported that two endemic The canyons may be connected to a previously undis-
species recorded from these areas were classified as en- covered sub-glacial lake as the ice surface above the
dangered and five as vulnerable to extinction in the Red lake shares characteristics with those of large sub-glacial
List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. lakes previously identified.
From VattappoyilKanam alone, they recorded the pres- The data suggests the area of the lake could cover up to
ence of 155 species of angiosperms, 52 species of birds, 1250 km more than 80 times as big as Lake Winder-
86 species of butterflies, 22 species of reptiles, 17 am- mere in the English Lake District.
phibians, and 43 spiders. The presence of the rich di- Discovering a gigantic new chasm that dwarfs the Grand
versity of flora and fauna indicated the importance of the Canyon is a tantalising prospect, said study co-author
unique ecosystem and called for urgent conservation Professor Martin Siegert from the Grantham Institute at
measures. Imperial College London, UK.
Our international collaboration of US, UK, Indian, Aus-
Worlds largest canyon is hidden under tralian and Chinese scientists are pushing back the
the Antarctic frontiers of discovery on Antarctica like nowhere else on
If you are in awe of the Grand Canyon in the US, brace earth, he added.
yourself for this: The worlds largest canyon, over 1,000
km long and in places as much as one km deep, may lie New thrush species found in eastern
under the Antarctic ice sheet, a team of scientists includ- Himalayas
ing Indian researchers has revealed. An internation team of scientists have described a new
The canyon system is made up of a chain of winding and species of the thrush in northeastern India and adjacent
linear features buried under several kilometres of ice in parts of China. The species was distinguished by its mu-
one of the last unexplored regions of the Earths land sur- sical song.
face Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL) in East Antarctica. The Himalayan Forest Thrush (Zootherasalimalii ) is
Our analysis provides the first evidence that a huge common in the eastern Himalaya range but was over-
canyon and a possible lake are present beneath the ice looked till now because of its similarity in appearance to
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
in Princess Elizabeth Land. Its astonishing to think that the plain-backed thrush, now renamed as Alpine thrush.
such large features could have avoided detection for so This is the first Indian bird to be named after late Dr.
long, said lead researcher Dr Stewart Jamieson from Salim Ali, who was closely associated with Bombay Natu-
Durham University in Britain in a paper published in the ral History Society as researcher, honorary secretary and
journal Geology. president. The bird has been named after him in recogni-
Very few measurements of the ice thickness have been tion of his huge contribution to the development of mod-
carried out in this particular area of the Antarctic, which ern Indian ornithology and wildlife conservation, a BNHS
has led to scientists dubbing it one of Antarcticas two press note said.
Poles of Ignorance. New bird species are rarely discovered to science now-
The researchers believe that the landscape beneath the adays, when most natural habitats are shrinking. Since
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Vol. 05
2000, an average of five new species have been discov- The Union government conducts the marine fisheries
ered globally every year, mostly from South America. The census once in every five years.The last census was
Himalayan Forest Thrush is only the fourth new bird spe- conducted in 2010.
cies described from India by modern ornithologists since According to the CMFRI, the census would be conducted
Independence, the BNHS release said. Scientists from in 360 marine fishing villages in Dakshina Kannada, Udu-
India, Sweden, China, U.S. and Russia worked on the pi and Uttara Kannada districts.
project. In all, 220 enumerators will be on duty in the three dis-
Scientists PerAlstrm and Shashank Dalvi first found tricts.
the bird between May and June 2009, while studying The census exercises will include collecting information
the thrushes at high elevations in western Arunachal about marine fishermen families, fishing craft and gears,
Pradesh. They realised that instead of a single species social and educational profile and demographic features
of plain-backed thrush ( Zootheramollissima ), there were of marine fishing villages.
two different species in the eastern Himalayas. Across the country, about 3,000 enumerators will visit 11
What first caught the attention of the scientists was the lakh fishermen families spread across 4,250 marine fish-
fact that the ones found in forests (Himalayan forest ing villages located in 73 districts to collect the details.
thrush) had a rather musical song, whereas those found The entire process will be monitored and supervised by
in the same region on bare rocky habitats above the tree- 220 officials posted at 26 centres.
line (Alpine thrush) had a much harsher, scratchier and The island regions of Andaman and Nicobar and Lak-
unmusical song, the BNHS said. shadweep will be enumerated under the supervision of
Studies of specimens in 15 museums across seven Fishery Survey of India.
countries revealed consistent differences in plumage The data would be analysed by the scientists of the in-
and structure. This confirmed that the Himalayan forest stitute to develop a comprehensive census database,
thrush, found to be breeding in the coniferous and mixed which will be helpful in facilitating formulation of fisheries-
forests of the eastern Himalayas, had not been separate- related plans and policies in the marine sector.
ly classified.
A third species called Sichuan forest thrush is present in Green revelations
China, said scientists. M.S. Swaminathan, who pioneered efforts to promote
agriculture in the post-Independence years, played a
New method to make biofuels cheaply key role in ushering in the Green Revolution and has the
Scientists have discovered an inexpensive way to deliver same commitment to promoting the ever green revolu-
carbon dioxide to micro-algae, which in turn can be har- tion. As an agricultural scientist, he carried on pioneering
vested to make renewable fuels. research; as a team leader, he inspired research among
Carbon dioxide speeds up the growth of micro-algae. a generation of young scientists; and as an activist in its
However, the carbon dioxide (CO2) has to be free of con- truest sense, he catalysed beyond measure policymak-
tamination or the algae will die. Researchers from the ing on food security issues.
Melbourne School of Engineering discovered that this This book is a compilation of articles published earlier in
new method purifies the carbon dioxide that is in power journals and brought together thematically. There are 30
station flue gases by absorbing it into a liquid. chapters on various subjects on agriculture. There are re-
This liquid is then pumped through hollow fibre mem- curring themes: enhancing production, ensuring sustain-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
branes. These hollow fibre membranes are like very long ability in an ecological context, food security, and hunger
drinking straws, which can be immersed into the micro- eradication. Most chapters of this book, in some form or
algae beds, researchers said. other, carry the message: the need to remove hunger
and provide food security to the masses.
Marine fisheries census in three coastal His account of the Yield Revolution is modest and gives
districts in State from Monday more credit to ministers and policymakers. He acknowl-
The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CM- edges the stellar role played by Norman Borlaug in intro-
FRI), a research body under the Indian Council of Ag- ducing a high-yielding wheat variety.
ricultural Research (ICAR-CMFRI), conducted a month- Elsewhere, Swaminathan says, Green Revolution was
long nation-wide marine fisheries census. the product of convergence of technology, services, pub-
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
lic policies and, above all, farmers enthusiasm. In other Sadly, the public harbours doubts about the nature and
chapters, he stresses on the need for involving farmers capability of the regulating agencies.
to take agriculture and productivity forward. This is so Swaminathan feels this can be resolved only by bridging
whether it is about introducing nutri-farms or for creating the gap between scientists and the public. He exhorts the
awareness about new crops, methods and programs. scientific community to master the science of scientific
For him, there is no food security without nutrition secu- communication.
rity. It is not only hunger that has to be removed; more Drawn from an experience of over seven decades, the
importantly, it is hidden hunger that needs to be eradi- book is a delight not only for the manner in which it con-
cated. Several pages are devoted to defining the concept denses his wisdom, but for the style in which it is con-
and suggesting ways to produce crops that have higher veyed.
nutrients.
As he says, Social protection measures should not only Private finance vital for India to reach
look at chronic and transient hunger, but also hidden climate goals: Survey
hunger caused by the deficiency of micronutrients like The Economic Survey finds that India will find it hard to
iron, iodine, zinc, vitamin A and Vitamin B to name a few. meet its variety of obligations to tackle climate change
Sustainability in agricultural production and protection of without substantial help from the private sector.
ecology in bringing about sustainability are other recur- Successful implementation of the Paris Agreement, the
ring themes. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the ambi-
His attachment to and concern for preserving agricultural tious targets set out in the Intended Nationally Deter-
heritage are evocative. He describes with nostalgia the mined Contributions (INDCs) will require huge financial
systems adopted in Kutanad and Koraput, which have resources which cannot be met through budgetary sourc-
sustained the regions for centuries. He is ready to graft es alone. Leveraging private finance along with public
elements from them to other places with similar condi- finance, both international and national, will be critical,
tions. says the chapter on climate change and sustainable de-
Several pages are devoted to the measures taken to pro- velopment in the Survey.
vide food security, especially the passing of the National The SDGs set by the United Nations last September lay
Food Security Act, in which he played a pivotal role. Even the onus on countries to make significant progress on a
so, it is his regret that the Act does not go far enough. wide range of goals including ending poverty and hunger
It is the largest social protection measure in the world and combating climate change. The INDCs are plans by
and cannot succeed without pan-political support and governments communicated to the United Nations cli-
commitment. His anguish is, There is no provision in the mate change council regarding the steps they will take to
Act for this purpose. He hopes that the establishment of address climate change domestically.
a National Food Security Authority chaired by the Prime Green technology
Minister with leaders of all major political parties may India, the Survey adds, could benefit from the renewed
provide the political will to ensure that chronic hunger global focus on adopting and developing green technol-
becomes a problem of the past. Since its passing, the ogy but there could be international pressure to commit
National Food Security Act has met with rough weather to a date beyond which its emissions wouldnt increase.
from the World Trade Organization. Swaminathan makes This is one of the sticking points between the U.S. and In-
no reference to these. dia and China on doing more to contain their greenhouse
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
As a renowned scientist, one would have expected him to gas emissions. As part of its domestic climate commit-
readily adopt latter-day genetically modified (GM) crops. ments, India has said it would source nearly 60,000 MW
His concern over ecological preservation has already of its energy by wind-power and 1,00,000 MW megawatts
been mentioned. He is willing to adopt GMs, subject to via solar power by 2022. The latter is extremely ambitious
their meeting safety safeguards. He is in broad agree- considering that as of today only 5% of this proposed so-
ment with the views and recommendations of the Parlia- lar capacity has been installed. The Survey also notes
mentary Committee report on Cultivation of Genetically that a mission on Climate Change and Health mooted
Modified Food Crops: Prospects and Effects since early 2015 is being developed and a National
He is in favour of enacting a comprehensive law on bio- Expert Group on Climate Change and Health has been
safety on the lines recommended by the Committee. constituted.
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Vol. 05
Indias pollution levels beat Chinas: Sunil Dahiya, a campaigner with Greenpeace India, said
study India should set a deadline for meeting air quality stand-
The average Indian was exposed to more particulate ards.
matter than the average Chinese citizen in 2015 the
first time that has happened in the 21stcentury accord- First blackbuck sighting in Cauvery
ing to a report released . wildlife sanctuary
Greenpeace analysed NASAs satellite data of particulate The Forest Department has reported the first-ever sight-
matter from 2003 to 2015 in India and China, and found ing and recording of the blackbuck, or Indian Antelope, in
that the pollution levels in China peaked in 2011 and then the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in Kollegal.
started to gradually reduce. India, however, saw a spike It was recorded from Mambetta Reserve Forest area of
over the past decade, the last year being the worst on the Hannur Wildlife Range, Hannur. Deputy Conservator
record. The study looked at the aerosol optical depth, of Forests P. Ramesh Kumar said it was photographed by
which is the amount of fine solid particles and liquid drop- the field staff during their regular patrolling duty.
lets in air. This reporting of the blackbuck in the Cauvery wildlife
After a public outcry, China implemented a national air sanctuary will add cheer to the conservation efforts of the
pollution action plan in 2013 that included stricter emis- Forest Department in the backdrop of the possible decla-
sion norms for coal-based power plants and industries ration of Cauvery wildlife sanctuary as a tiger reserve in
and greater enforcement of standards. The results of the near future, said Mr. Ramesh Kumar.
these measures show in the satellite data: there is a He said the blackbuck is a new addition to the existing list
slight reduction in pollution in Central and Eastern China. of ungulates in the Cauvery wildlife sanctuary and it defi-
The levels in India have increased over the years, North nitely becomes an additional prey base to the top preda-
India being the most polluted part of the country. The big- tors such as the tiger and leopard.
gest jump was seen in West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh The species has so far not been sighted and documented
and the National Capital Region. With a population- in the Cauvery-MM.Hills-BRT Sanctuary belt.Incidentally,
weighted analysis, the report found that the average citi- there is a proposal before the government to develop
zen in India was exposed to more pollution in 2015 than about 1,504.39 acres of land at Ummathur and Bagli
his or her Chinese counterpart. villages in Chamarajanagar district to sustain the black-
The report said that the AOD levels in Indian cities Pat- buck population. At present, the blackbuck conservation
na, Kolkata, New Delhi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur and Varanasi reserves in the State are at Ranebennur in Haveri and
all went up from 2005 to 2015. But not all of the highly- Jayamanagali in Tumakuru.
polluted big cities are covered by the air pollution moni-
toring network. There are 89 cities with a population of Greenland ice sheet releasing large
more than 5 lakhs, but only 17 have continuous air quality amount of phosphorus
monitoring systems. The National Air Quality Index cov- Glacial meltwater has been known to contain phospho-
ers 23 cities with 39 stations, as opposed to 1,500 moni- rus, but as Greenland ice sheet melts, it could be releas-
toring stations in China. Among the most polluted cities ing more of phosphorus a key nutrient that can enrich
that lack continuous monitoring data are Durgapur, Gora- waters of the oceans, potentially stimulating the growth of
khpur, Asansol, Shiliguri, Bareilly and Ludhiana. marine food chain, finds a new study.
Meanwhile, Chinas actions led to a 17 per cent reduc- The total phosphorus concentrations found in the melt-
water of the Leverett glacier was 10 times greater than
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
tion in PM2.5 from 2010 to 2015, while India saw a 13

per cent increase over the same period. In comparison, concentrations found in Arctic river waters, the study
the United States saw a 15 per cent decrease. Compar- showed.
ing the situation in India and China, Greenpeace East The rising nutrient level could speed up the biologi-
Asia air pollution specialist Lauri Myllyvirta said: China cal activity of the Arctic waters. It can stimulate growth
is an example of how determined policies and tougher of plankton a diverse group of organisms that live in
enforcement can turn the tide on air pollution to peoples large water bodies and provide a crucial source of food
benefit. to fishes at the base of the ocean food web, which
Mr. Myllyvirta, one of the authors of the report, said In- could impact birds, fish and marine mammals higher up
dia too needed to adopt strict and time-bound measures. the food chain, the researchers indicated.
We found greater amounts of phosphorus in the waters
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Vol. 05
of the Leverett Glacier in Antarctica than had been de- person Justice Swatanter Kumar had spelt trouble for
tected at previous study sites, which have looked mostly the project. A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of
at smaller glaciers, said Jon Hawkings of the University India H.L. Dattu passed the stay order on a plea by the
of Bristol. project proponents against the tribunal decision. The
The large Leverett Glacier, however, is more represent- NGT had claimed that it has the complete and com-
ative of the glaciers that contribute the bulk of meltwater prehensive trappings of a court to exercise the limited
coming from the Greenland ice sheet, he said. power of judicial review to examine the constitutional va-
The researchers found that the annual phosphorus input lidity/vires of the subordinate legislation.
for all of Greenlands outlet glaciers is at least equal to The NGT order was based on an application by two
some of the worlds largest rivers, such as the Missis- Thiruvananthapuram-based environmental activists,
sippi in the US and the Amazon in Brazil. Wilfred J. and V. Marydasan, asking the tribunal to direct
Also, if most of the phosphorus found in meltwater from that coastal areas throughout the country, including the
all of Greenlands glaciers reaches the sea, it would Vizhinjam coast, be preserved and no activity be under-
be equal to about 400,000 metric tonnes per year, the taken which would damage such areas.
study revealed. The amount could increase as the cli-
mate warms and more ice melts.However, how much Experts unsure if El Nino will fade away
phosphorus makes it from the meltwater into the open A good number of meteorologists expect the monsoon in
oceans is not yet known, pointed out the researchers. 2016 to be normal, though they are unclear whether the
El Ninoa weather anomaly blamed for back-to-back
Vizhinjam: apex court lifts stay on NGT droughts over India since 2014 will completely fade
proceedings away during the crucial rain months from June to Sep-
The Supreme Court lifted the stay on the proceedings tember.
before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on pleas El Nino refers to an anomalous heating up of the waters
seeking withdrawal of environment clearances granted in the central-eastern regions of the equatorial Pacific
to the multipurpose deep-seaport project at Vizhinjam, and implies a consistent, average rise in temperature of
developed by the Adani Group in Kerala. 0.5 degree Celsius above normal. Historically that trans-
The apex courts decision comes a day after a Bench lates to the monsoon drying up over India six in 10 years.
led by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur remarked that a huge Conversely, the La Nina, or an anti-El Nino, when wa-
project like this is expected to ruffle some feathers. ters in the same regions dip at least 0.5 degree Celsius
The Bench, also comprising Justices A.K. Sikri and R. and generally considered favourable for the monsoon, is
Banumathi, asked the top green tribunal to complete the only expected to set in after September, says an update
proceedings in six weeks time, giving no room for any by the U.S.-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric
adjournments. Administration. A transition to ENSO-neutral is likely
No interim orders during late Northern Hemisphere spring or early sum-
The apex court further asked the tribunal not to pass any mer 2016, with close to a 50 per cent chance for La Nia
interim orders till it gives its final verdict. conditions to develop by the fall, the organisation said
The direction came on the appeals filed by Vizhinjam in a statement.
International Seaport Ltd (VISL) and the Kerala govern- The India Meteorological Department is expected to an-
ment against a decision of the Principal Bench of the nounce its first monsoon forecast later next month.
NGT to review the environmental clearances given to Meteorologists said that Nino neutral conditions were
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
the Rs.6,000-crore project. likely to prevail during the crucial months of July and Au-
Supreme Court stay gust that accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the monsoon
In January 2015, the Supreme Court had stayed a judg- rainfall. Nino neutral (when sea surface temperatures
ment of the Principal Bench of the National Green Tri- are close to normal) can be a mixed bag for Indian mon-
bunal to review the constitutionality of a 2011 Coastal soon, said SivanandaPai, chief meteorologist, IMD, but
Regulation Zone notification which exempted coastal generally an El Nino year is followed by normal mon-
areas of outstanding natural beauty like the Vizhinjam- soon.
Kovalam sector in Kerala from protection. To be sure, 2015 was only the fourth time in a 100-year
The July verdict of the tribunal Bench led by NGT chair- span that El Nino-like conditions raged on for two con-
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Vol. 05
secutive years. Bineesh, the lead author of the paper.
Mr. Pai said key weather parameters needed to prepare With the bar coding, it has now become easy for the iden-
the forecast would only be available by March-end and it tification of the species from its tissues, be it salted or
was yet too early to decide how the monsoon would pan even dried samples.
out. In April, the IMD traditionally forecasts if the mon- Recently, the government had imposed a ban on the ex-
soon is likely to be normal and it generally updates this port of shark fins. Five species of sharks and two manta
figure around June. ray species found in Indian waters have been included in
Other meteorologists however say that while no agency Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in
expects an El Nino there are doubts on how fast the wa- Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora for moni-
ters are expected to cool. I would expect it to dip below toring its international trade. The protected species have
0 around August, though there are still disagreements in- to be accurately identified in the field or at the export/
ternationally, said G.P. Sharma, Vice President-Meteor- trade levels to ensure their effective protection and pre-
ology, Skymet Weather Services. Irrespective of how the vention of illegal trade. The documentation would help in
El Nino pans out, normal monsoon doesnt mean that all strictly enforcing the conservation drive of the species,
parts of the country would receive good rain. Dr.Bineesh said.
New shark and ray species found New golden frog species found in
From the Indian waters, a unique and pleasant challenge Colombia
has suddenly surfaced 13 new species of sharks and Researchers have discovered a new species of pale-gold
rays. Researchers were bar coding sharks and rays coloured frog in the cloud forests of the high Andes in
found in the Indian waters when they came across these Colombia.
new species. Its name, Pristimantisdorado, commemorates both its
The researchers are busy naming them before adding to colour (dorado means golden in Spanish) and El Do-
the list of sharks and rays found in the Indian waters. The rado, a mythical city of gold eagerly sought for centuries
results of 111 species of sharks and rays that were bar by Spanish conquistadores in South America.
coded were published in the journal Mitochondrial DNA. The Spaniards assumed Colombias wealth was its
The DNA bar coding was successfully used for accurate gold, but today we understand that the real riches of the
identification of chondrichthyans which included the chi- country lie in its biodiversity, said one of the researchers
maeras, sharks, rays, and skates in the Indian waters, Andrew Crawford from Smithsonian Tropical Research
according to A. Gopalakrishnan, director, Central Marine Institute (STRI) in Panama.
Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, one of the leading The new species was found calling from bushes along a
partners in the project. The chondrichthyans are exploit- roadside at about 8,700 feet elevation near Chingaza Na-
ed in commercial, artisanal, and recreational fishing ac- tional Park, roughly 10 miles east of Bogota, Colombias
tivities but the major catch occursincommercial fishery. capital and largest city.
They are highly vulnerable to over exploitation and habi- Its discovery so close to a metropolitan area of nearly
tat degradation due to their life history. 10 million inhabitants illustrates how much of the planets
With an estimated landing of 46,471 tonnes, India is one biodiversity remains to be discovered.
of the leading chondrichthyan fishing nations for the past With this new species, Colombia now hosts 800 species
several years. Despite the rich diversity and long history of amphibians, second only to Brazil in total diversity, Mr.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
of the elasmobranch fishery, only a few detailed studies Crawford said.

have been undertaken on the taxonomy and diversity of The findings were described in the journal Amphibia-
this group in India, pointed out the paper. Reptilia.The extraordinarily diverse group to which the
The Kochi unit of the Peninsular and Marine Fish Genetic new species belongs, Pristimantis, includes 465 recog-
Resources Centre and the National Research Collec- nised species, 205 of them from Colombia.
tions Australia, Hobart, Tasmania and Australia partnered At seven-tenths of an inch long, the new species is among
in the research project. the smaller species in the group. The largest species
During the analysis, 528 specimens of 111 chondrich- grow to be two inches in length, the researchers said.
thyan species and 34 families, collected from the Indian Males of many frog species advertise for females with
Exclusive Economic Zone were bar coded, said K.K. distinctive calls produced by vocal sacs or vocal slits.
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Vol. 05
Oddly, although the new species lacks these structures, sea, locally known as dakhsinapaban, Olive Ridleys will
males are still able to produce calls consisting of an ir- come out for mass nesting.
regularly pulsed series of clicks, the study pointed out. Meanwhile, the forest department has already made all
arrangements including establishment of observation
Climatic conditions delaying mass camps, fencing of coast with nets and patrolling in sea
nesting of Olive Ridley turtles in Odisha for protection of Olive Ridleys and their eggs during their
coast mass nesting.
Climatic conditions seem to have delayed mass nest-
ing of Olive Ridley turtles at Rushikulya rookery coast in Rapid melt of New Zealand glaciers ends
Ganjam district of Odisha. century-old hiking tradition
This year mass nesting has not started yet although usu- New Zealand is renowned for its wondrous scenery, and
ally it starts at end of February or beginning of March. among the countrys top tourist attractions are two gla-
Mating of Olive Ridleys in the sea near this coast was ciers that are both stunning and unusual because they
also slightly delayed this year. As per the records, in the snake down from the mountains to a temperate rain for-
past mass nesting had occurred at Rushikulya rookery est, making them easy for people to walk up to and view.
coast even. So, we still hope that mass nesting would But the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers have been melting
occur here, said Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer at such a rapid rate that it has become too dangerous for
(DFO) AshisBehera. tourists to hike onto them from the valley floor, ending a
This confidence was based on the findings of a forest tradition that dates back a century.
department team that patrolled the sea near the rookery With continuing warm weather this year there are no signs
on Wednesday. Thousands of mother Olive Ridleys con- of a turnaround, and scientists say it is another example
tinue to congregate in the sea which hints that they may of how global warming is impacting the environment.
be waiting for some conducive time to start nesting, said Tourism in New Zealand is booming and nearly 1 million
the DFO. people last year flocked to get a glimpse of the glaciers
Although the gestation period is around 50 days, the fe- and the spectacular valleys theyve carved. But the only
male Olive Ridleys have capacity to keep fertilised eggs way to set foot on them now is to get flown onto them by
inside their body for long time spans till they get proper helicopter.
environment and location to lay eggs, said BivashPan- Tour operators offer flights and guided glacier walks, al-
dav, scientist of Wildlife Institute of India (WII). though logistics limit this to 80,000 tourists per year, half
Speculation are being made for this delay in mass nesting. the number that once hiked up from the valley floor.
Some localites say sea erosion at the coast may be the Up to another 150,000 people each year take scenic
reason. Erosion has made several sections of the beach flights that land briefly at the top of the glaciers.
a wall of sand of about two to three feet high. Moreover Flying in the UNESCO World Heritage area comes with
rain has packed up the sand tightly, which is a hindrance its own risks, highlighted in November when a sightsee-
for the turtles who dig up the sand with their flappers to ing helicopter crashed onto the Fox Glacier, killing all
lay the eggs. Have the Olive Ridleys sensed this condi- seven aboard.
tion of the beach through some turtles who came out to Sitting near the base of the Franz Josef Glacier, Wayne
the beach for sporadic nesting is a big question. Till now Costello, a district operations manager for the Depart-
not much is known regarding the life and habits of Olive ment of Conservation, said that when he arrived eight
Ridleys who are considered too intelligent. years ago, the rock he was perched on would have been
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
Mr Pandav said sea erosion cannot be a reason of de- buried under tons of ice. Instead, the glacier now comes
lay in nesting as during mass nesting they are seen to to an end a half-mile (800 meters) further up the valley.
climb sand walls higher than the ones formed in Rushi- Like a loaf of bread shrinking in its tin, its gone down a
kulya rookery coast. These intelligent reptiles can eas- lot as well, Costello said. So its wasted away in terms of
ily choose nearby region where there is no erosion, said its thickness, and thats led to quite a rapid melt.
the DFO. It seems these turtles are waiting for wind to Because of that melt, the valley walls that were once
flow from land towards sea which always coincides with braced by the glaciers have been left exposed and vul-
mass nesting. This wind prevents smell of eggs reaching nerable to rock falls, making hiking up too dangerous.
predators on land near the coast, said Mr Pandav. Tour operators stopped taking guided hikes onto the
He hoped that once the wind direction changes towards Franz Josef in 2012 and the nearby Fox in 2014.
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Vol. 05
A 2014 paper published in the journal Global and Planetary Change concluded the two glaciers have each melted by
3 kilometres in length since the 1800s, making them about 20 percent shorter.The glaciers have recently been melting
at a faster pace than ever previously recorded.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
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Vol. 05
pancreatic cancer: study

Health and Medicune Researchers have uncovered a novel mechanism be-
hind the ability of the diabetes drug metformin to inhibit
the progression of pancreatic cancer.
Researchers found that metformin decreases the inflam-
Risk of gastric cancer higher among mation and fibrosis characteristic of the most common
beedi smokers in Kerala, finds study form of pancreatic cancer. The findings indicate that this
Beedi, or hand-rolled tobacco, a known risk for cancers beneficial effect may be most prevalent in overweight
of the lung and oral cavity, could be a risk factor for gas- and obese patients.
tric cancers as well, according to a study conducted by The study by researchers at Massachusetts General
the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC). Hospital (MGH) focused on pancreatic ductal adenocar-
The study, Gastric cancer risk in relation to tobacco use cinoma, the most common form of pancreatic cancer.
and alcohol drinking in Kerala, India, published in a re-
cent issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology , Needle-free method to deliver
shows that the risk for gastric cancers increased with the anaesthesia
number of beedis smoked and the duration of smoking. In some good news for people who fear painful injec-
Giving out the results of the study here on Tuesday, Paul tions given by the dentist, scientists have found a new
Sebastian, Director of RCC, and P. Jayalekshmi, cancer method to deliver anaesthesia using a tiny electric cur-
epidemiologist who heads the Karunagappally centre of rent instead.
RCC, said the preliminary results of the study showed a Needle-free administration could save costs, improve
clear link between beedi smoking and gastric cancers. patient compliance, facilitate application and decrease
However, long-term epidemiological studies are required the risks of intoxication and contamination, said Renata
to firmly establish beedi smoking as one of the causative Fonseca Vianna Lopez, from the University of Sao Paulo
factors for gastric cancers. in Brazil. Dentists often have to carry out invasive and
The study, carried out in Karunagappally, Kollam, cov- painful procedures in the mouth. To minimise patients
ered 65,553 men between the ages of 30 and 84 during discomfort, dentists use anaesthetics that block the
the 1990-2009 period. It investigated the association of pain, which are administered using needles.
tobacco use, alcohol drinking and socio economic sta- For some patients, an additional step is needed den-
tus with gastric cancer.Beedi smoking that started at 22 tists first give them a topical painkiller to reduce the pain
years of age or younger was shown to be significantly and associated fear caused by the needle.
associated with a higher risk of gastric cancer. This can come in the form of a hydrogel, ointment or
In the present study, there was no increase in gastric sprays; the most common are hydrogels that can con-
cancer risk in current cigarette smokers; however, an in- tain lidocaine and prilocaine.
crease in risk, although non-significant, was observed Researchers studied a way of getting these topical an-
among former smokers. Helicobacter pylori( H. pylori ) aesthetics into the body more effectively, to see if they
infection is the most important risk factor in gastric can- could replace needles altogether. They found that apply-
cer and is known to trigger a sequence of pathological ing a tiny electric current a process called iontophore-
changes leading to it. Tobacco use and alcohol drinking sis made the anaesthetics more effective.
can modify the risk of gastric cancer induced by H. pylori
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
The researchers first prepared the anaesthetic hydro-

. The current study also suggested that beedi smoking gels with a polymer to help it stick to the lining of the
increased the risk of H. pylori -related gastric cancer. mouth.
The study also found a strong association between gas- They added two anaesthetic drugs, prilocaine hydro-
tric cancer incidence and occupational patterns. Of the chloride (PCL) and lidocaine hydrochloride (LCL). They
116 gastric cancers identified at the end of the study pe- tested the gel on the mouth lining of a pig, applying a tiny
riod in 2009, 51 were among farmers and fishermen, fol- electric current to see if it made the anaesthetic more
lowed by 28 cases among those doing white-collar jobs. effective.
The anaesthesia was fast-acting and long-lasting. The
Diabetes drug may slow growth of electric current made the prilocaine hydrochloride enter
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Vol. 05
the body more effectively; the permeation of the anaes- that can be paired with neural implants for efficient wire-
thetic through the mouth lining increased 12-fold. less transmission of brain signals thus alleviating the
debilitating symptoms of Parkinsons disease or giving
WHO unit to focus on achieving paraplegic people the ability to move prosthetic limbs.
universal health coverage Assistant professor ArindamBasu from Nanyang Tech-
The World Health Organization (WHO) have announced nological University, Singapore, said the research team
setting up of a dedicated unit that will focus on achieving has tested the chip on data recorded from animal models
universal health coverage (UHC), which is target 3.8 of which showed that it could decode the brains signal to
sustainable development goals (SDGs). the hand and fingers with 95 per cent accuracy.
The goals within SDGs emphasise the need to achieve What we have developed is a very versatile smart chip
UHC by ensuring financial risk protection and improving that can process data, analyse patterns and spot the dif-
access to essential health care services for those mar- ference, Prof.Basu said.
ginalised. So far, the quality of services has been ne- Currently, neural implants when embedded in the brain
glected within the UHC dialogue. We at the WHO believe need to be connected by wires to an external device out-
that there has been a lack of centre of gravity for quality. side the body.For a prosthetic patient, the neural implant
It is with this in mind that a unit is being formed to address is connected to a computer that decodes the brain sig-
UHC & quality, said Shams Syed from the WHO. nals so the artificial limb can move.
This special unit will focus on three key aspects: align- These external wires are not only cumbersome but the
ment of country engagements and global framework, permanent openings which allow the wires into the brain
health service resilience, and quality and lastly establish- increase the risk of infections. The new chip can allow
ing partnerships to reach these goals. We will launch a the transmission of brain data wirelessly and with high
global learning lab for UHC, which will help in aligning na- accuracy.
tional policies and strategies to reach UHC. The aspect The chip is about a hundred times more efficient than
of health service resilience, will focus on learning from current processing chips on the market. It will lead to
experiences in recovery in Ebola-affected countries more compact medical wearable devices, such as port-
especially by establishing linkages between UHC, post able ECG monitoring devices and neural implants.
shock recovery, Mr. Syed added.
This year, the prestigious award (in medicine) was con- Scientists use Hepatitis virus shell for
ferred upon Professor Morton Mower from the United cancer treatment
States for invention of the Automatic Implantable Cardio- Scientists at a US university have found a way to use an
verter Defibrillator, a device that helps monitor heart rate empty shell of a Hepatitis E virus to carry anti-cancer vac-
and rhythm, and deliver electrical current when abnor- cines or drugs into the body.
mality is detected. Hepatitis E virus is feco-orally transmitted, so it can
Sir Michael Marmot of the U.K. won the award in public survive the passage through the digestive system, said
health for his evidence-based evaluation of the role of Marie Stark, a graduate student working with professor
Social Determinants of Health, a concept adopted by the Holland Cheng of the department of molecular and cell
British government and the WHO to eliminate health in- biology at the University of California-Davis.
equities. Mr. Cheng, Ms. Stark and colleagues prepared virus-like
Sir Michael said that increasing inequality was threaten- particles based on Hepatitis E proteins.The particles do
ing the democratic legitimacy of our world. Inequality not contain any virus DNA, so they cant multiply and
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
brings with it other social evils like ill health and crime. It spread and cause infections.
damages health. Absolute inequality means disempow- Such particles could be used as vaccines that are de-
erment of a severe kind and not being able to afford food livered through food or drink. The idea is that you would
and shelter. Our response to this inequality in health is drink the vaccine, and after passing through the stomach
working towards UHC. the virus-like particles would get absorbed in the intestine
and deliver vaccines to the body.But the particles could
Indian-origin scientist develops smart also be used to attack cancer.
chip for wireless neural implants Ms. Stark and Mr. Cheng did some tinkering with the pro-
An Indian-origin scientist has developed a smart chip teins, so that they carry sticky cysteine amino acids on
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
the outside. They could then chemically link other mol- Bharat Biotech submitted necessary information to the
ecules to these cysteine groups. Indian Council of Medical Research four days ago. The
They worked with a molecule called LXY-30, developed company is now planning to seek Prime Minister Nar-
by researchers at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer endra Modis help in expediting regulatory clearances.
Centre, which is known to stick to breast cancer cells. When Ebola vaccine candidates were being discussed,
The technique was tested in rodents as a way to target the company had skipped Phase-II trials and went on to
breast cancer.By using a fluorescent marker, they could Phase-III with a small sample size. Given the urgency
show that virus-like particles carrying LXY-30 could home of the situation, something of that sort will be required,
in on breast cancer cells both in a laboratory dish and in Dr. Ella said. At present, getting regulatory approvals for
a mouse. conducting clinical trials can take up to 6-8 months.
Bharat Biotech filed patents for both candidates in July
WHO may declare Zika a health 2015, Dr. Ella said. Since the company had already
emergency worked on chikungunya, this was the next logical step.
World Health Organization (WHO) experts began emer- At the time we started working on the Zika vaccine, there
gency talks on Monday on whether a Zika virus outbreak, was not a market incentive or any demand for it, largely
suspected of causing a surge in serious birth defects in because the symptoms were mild. But we were already
South America, should be declared a global health emer- working on chikungunya, and our hypothesis was that the
gency. The UN health agency warned last week that the same vector transmitted this disease, so we thought we
mosquito-borne virus was spreading explosively in the needed to look at this aspect as well, he said.
Americas, with the region expected to see up to four mil-
lion cases this year. India readies to take on Zika
Although symptoms of the mosquito-borne virus are rela- In a press release, the Ministry said: The NCDC, Delhi,
tively mild, it is believed to be linked to a surge in cases and the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, would
of microcephaly, a devastating condition in which a baby be the apex laboratories to support the outbreak investi-
is born with an abnormally small head and brain. gation and for confirmation of laboratory diagnosis. Ten
While it has yet to be definitively proven that the micro- additional laboratories would be provided by the Indian
cephaly cases are caused in some way by the Zika vi- Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
rus, WHO chief Margaret Chan warned last week that a The Health Ministry has set up a joint monitoring group
causal relationship was strongly suspected. Zika is also under the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) to
believed to be linked to a neurological disorder called follow the events daily. The NCDC and the Focal Point for
Guillain-Barre syndrome. International Health Regulations (IHR) have been tasked
In a bid to forge a response to the outbreak, Ms. Chan with sharing of information with the IHR focal points of the
called Mondays closed-door meeting of the WHOs affected countries and to be in constant touch with the
emergency committee to determine if Zika should be WHO for updates. Public health experts say poor vector
considered a public health emergency of international control in India could lead to a possible outbreak. Since
concern. India has the mosquito (Aedesaegypti) responsible for
the spread of the virus, the same one that causes dengue
Indian firm develops Zika vaccine and chikungunya, if an infected individual comes here,
candidates infection can be spread by mosquitoes biting this person,
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
The World Health Organization has reported 22 countries acquiring the virus and then passing it on to those who
and territories in Americas from where the transmission are bitten subsequently, said VivekanandJha, executive
of Zika virus has been reported. Krishna Ella, Chairman director, George Institute for Global Health.
and Managing Director of the company, said the two can- Rapid response teams will be activated at the Central
didates were in an advanced stage of development and and State surveillance units. In addition to strengthening
could be ready soon. In the coming two weeks, we will laboratories, the government will activate the teams at
be able to start animal tests of one of them. Since this Central and State surveillance units, the Health Ministry
is a pandemic situation, we are hoping that the Indian said. The Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme
government will move quickly to give approvals for the would track clustering of acute febrile illness and seek
trials, he said. primary cause, if any, among those who travelled to ar-
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Vol. 05
eas with the ongoing transmission in the two weeks pre- Others toss and turn on the most luxurious mattresses,
ceding the onset of illness. unable to switch off from the world outside. Some are
in mental agony, playing and replaying the events of the
WHO suspends TB drugs from Svizera day/week/month/year, wondering what went wrong and
Labs on quality concerns where. The result? A slew of health issues brought on by
The World Health Organisation (WTO) has suspended one single factor: lack of sleep.
the approval of tuberculosis drugs made by Indias Sviz- N. Ramakrishnan, senior consultant and director of
era Labs, a major supplier to developing countries, fol- Nithra Institute of Sleep Sciences, Chennai, says that is
lowing an investigation into standards. why the theme for World Sleep Day 2016 is Good sleep
The United Nations agency, which acts as a drug watch- is a reachable dream. We stress on the fact that this is
dog in markets lacking robust local regulation, said it had lifestyle-related and that people must make an effort to
suspended all TB products made at Svizeras Mumbai change their habits.
site because manufacturing standards and quality man- Sadly, though enough studies show how vital sleep is,
agement were unreliable. few physicians look at it as a cause or give it importance
It also said independent experts should retest batches as a symptom. When I started Nithra, I saw one patient
of medicine already on the market and it might be nec- a week. Today, I see about 30 a day, but we found that
essary to recall supplies depending on the outcome of more than 60 per cent were coming in by themselves,
those tests. only the rest were referred by doctors. So, are patients
The move is a fresh blow for Indias pharmaceuticals in- more aware than physicians? he wonders.
dustry, which supplies cheap generic medicines to coun- How often has a doctor asked you if you sleep well or
tries worldwide but has been tarnished by a series of wanted to know your sleep pattern? That information can
quality problems in recent years, denting confidence in help place in context many ailments, experts say.
its products. From a time when lack of sleep plagued the elderly, to-
day, people of all ages come in with the complaint. We
The WHO had previously issued a warning letter to put in long hours at work, we dont unwind, theres lots
Mumbai-based Svizera Labs, part of Maneesh Pharma- of light in the room, theres no routine physical activity at
ceuticals, in September 2015, after finding dirty surfaces, the correct time, says Dr. Ramakrishnan, and adds:
black mould in a cleaning area, low hygiene standards Physical activity is vital, but you must know when to do
and inadequate record-keeping. The latest notice of it. Gymming at night worsens sleep. So do late dinners,
suspension letter was posted on the WHOs website 15 coffee, tea, alcohol and smoking.
days after being sent to the company. Children have not been spared either. Janani Sankar,
The notice highlighted several complaints about the qual- senior consultant, KanchiKamakoti Childs Trust Hospi-
ity of certain drug batches. tal, lays the blame squarely on gadgets and technology.
BoudewijnPloos van Amstel, Managing Director of Sviz- They are hooked to so many devices that they end up
era Europe, said the company disagreed with the assess- hitting bed later and later. So many parents complain,
ment, adding that the WHO had ignored information from she says.
the company showing that Svizeras operations were up Lack of sleep among children manifests as day-time
to standard. sleepiness, chronic headaches and poor academic per-
The WHO plays a critical role in monitoring drug quality in formance among old kids, and temper tantrums and un-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
poorer countries through its Prequalification of Medicines explained crankiness among younger children. When
Programme, which ensures that treatments supplied by paediatricians notice these symptoms, they pop the
U.N. agencies such as UNICEF are of acceptable quality. sleep question. Invariably, the kids have sleep deficit,
The programme is also used by governments to guide says Dr. Janani.
the bulk purchase of medicines. In fact, says Dr. Ramakrishnan, a recent study showed
that kids with inadequate sleep focus lesser academi-
Dream of a good nights sleep cally; it overshadows even their natural smartness.
A precious thing we took for granted is now being pur- The mind can also play games and prevent people from
sued in vain a good nights sleep. People delay hitting having restful sleep. Psychological issues, trauma in in-
bed, preferring the company of their numerous gadgets. terpersonal relationships, workplace tangles, etc. all play
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Vol. 05
a role in depriving you of a good nights rest. Sometimes, in San Diego, the U.S., could one day lead to precisely
people need medication to bring their lives back on track. printed implants to heal damaged noses, ears and knees.
All this, because sleep does not complain vocally when Three-dimensional bio-printing is a disruptive technol-
hours are snatched away from it and handed over to oth- ogy and is expected to revolutionise tissue engineering
er activities. But, I wish people gave more importance to and regenerative medicine, said one of the researchers
sleep. Its benefits are not tangible, but incredibly precious. Paul Gatenholm from Wallenberg Wood Science Center
Recognise and respect that, says Dr. Ramakrishnan. in Sweden.
Rest Easy Our teams interest is in working with plastic surgeons to
The Westin celebrates World Sleep Day in partnership create cartilage to repair damage from injuries or cancer.
with World Sleep Society. Close to 50 of their hotels and We work with the ear and the nose, which are parts of the
resorts across Asia Pacific, including The Westin Chen- body that surgeons today have a hard time repairing. But
nai Velachery, will take part in a series of activities and hopefully, theyll one day be able to fix them with a 3D
events today. The Westin team will deliver customised printer and a bio-ink made out of a patients own cells,
Sleep Kits to people in various professions. These sleep Mr. Gatenholm said.
kits contain a travel-sized Heavenly Pillow, chamomile To create a new bio-ink, Mr. Gatenholms team mixed
tea, the hotels signature white tea bath amenities and a polysaccharides from brown algae and tiny cellulose fi-
Sleep Well guidebook containing sleep tips. brils from wood or made by bacteria, as well as human
World Association of Sleep Medicines fundamental mis- chondrocytes, which are cells that build up cartilage. Us-
sion is to advance sleep health worldwide by promoting ing this mixture, the researchers were able to print living
and encouraging education, research, and patient care cells in a specific architecture, such as an ear shape, that
throughout the world, said a statement. World Sleep Day maintained its form even after printing. The printed cells
is an annual event it created to raise awareness on sleep also produced cartilage in a laboratory dish.
disorders and the burden they place on society. Moving the research from a lab dish to a living system,
Tips Mr. Gatenholms team printed tissue samples and im-
Wake up at the same time every day. planted them in mice. The cells survived and produced
Set a schedule for sleep time and stick to it. cartilage. Then, to boost the number of cells, which is an-
A brisk morning walk helps. Your body needs other hurdle in tissue engineering, the researchers mixed
sunlight to know it is time to wake up, and darkness to the chondrocytes with human mesenchymal stem cells
know it can rest. from bone marrow. Preliminary data from in vivo testing
Sleep in an environment that calms you. over 60 days showed that the combination does indeed
Avoid harsh light and illumination from gadgets. encourage chondrocyte and cartilage production.
Ideal sleep time
Eight hours for children, at a stretch. Avoid afternoon Blueberries may help beat Alzheimers:
naps for slightly older children; it will interfere with their study
night sleep. Eating blueberries, the well-known super fruit, may not
For adults, six to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. You only lower the risk of heart disease and cancer, but also
know you have slept well when you awaken refreshed provide protection against Alzheimers disease, a new
and dont feel like hitting the snooze button. study has claimed.
The fruit is loaded with healthful antioxidants, and these
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
3D printing could help fix damaged substances could help prevent the devastating effects of
cartilage in knees this increasingly common form of dementia, researchers
By 3D bio-printing an ink containing human cells, re- said.
searchers have now found a way to produce cartilage Wonder berry
tissue damaged by injuries or age. Our new findings corroborate those of previous animal
Athletes, the elderly and others who suffer from injuries studies and preliminary human studies, adding further
and arthritis can lose cartilage and experience a lot of support to the notion that blueberries can have a real
pain. benefit in improving memory and cognitive function in
The new process, presented at the 251st National Meet- some older adults, said Robert Krikorian from University
ing & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) of Cincinnati in the U.S.
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Vol. 05
Blueberries beneficial effects could be due to flavonoids called anthocyanins, which have been shown to improve
animals cognition, he said.
Two human studies conducted
Researchers conducted two human studies to follow up on earlier clinical trials. One study involved 47 adults aged
68 and older, who had mild cognitive impairment, a risk condition for Alzheimers disease.
Scientists gave them either freeze-dried blueberry powder, which is equivalent to a cup of berries, or a placebo pow-
der once a day for 16 weeks.
Improved Memory
There was improvement in cognitive performance and brain function in those who had the blueberry powder com-
pared with those who took the placebo. The blueberry group demonstrated improved memory and improved access
to words and concepts, said Mr. Krikorian.
Researchers also conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which showed increased brain activity in
those who ingested the blueberry powder.
And the placebo group
The second study included 94 people aged 62 to 80, who were divided into four groups. The participants did not have
objectively measured cognitive issues, but they subjectively felt their memories were declining.
The groups received blueberry powder, fish oil, fish oil and powder or placebo.
The results were not as robust as with the first study. Cognition was somewhat better for those with powder or fish
oil separately, but there was little improvement with memory, said Mr. Krikorian.
Also, FMRI results were not as striking for those receiving blueberry powder. The effect may have been smaller in this
case because these participants had less severe issues when they entered the study, researchers said.
Gum disease linked with memory decline in Alzheimers: study

Researchers have for the first time found a link between gum disease and greater rates of cognitive decline in people
with early stages of Alzheimers disease.
Periodontitis or gum disease is common in older people and may become more common in Alzheimers disease be-
cause of a reduced ability to take care of oral hygiene as the disease progresses, researchers said. Higher levels of
antibodies to periodontal bacteria are associated with an increase in levels of inflammatory molecules elsewhere in
the body, which in turn has been linked to greater rates of cognitive decline in Alzheimers disease in previous stud-
ies, they said.
In the new study, 59 participants with mild to moderate Alzheimers disease were cognitively assessed and a blood
sample was taken to measure inflammatory markers in their blood.
Participants dental health was assessed by a dental hygienist who was blind to cognitive outcomes. The majority of
participants (52) were followed up at six months when all assessments were repeated.
The presence of gum disease at baseline was associated with a six-fold increase in the rate of cognitive decline in
participants over the six-month follow-up period of the study.
Periodontitis at baseline was also associated with a relative increase in the pro-inflammatory state over the six-month
follow-up period, researchers said.
These are very interesting results which build on previous work we have done that shows that chronic inflammatory
conditions have a detrimental effect on disease progression in people with Alzheimers disease, said Clive Holmes
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
from University of Southampton in the UK.

If there is a direct relationship between periodontitis and cognitive decline, as this current study suggests, then treat-
ment of gum disease might be a possible treatment option for Alzheimers, said Mr. Holmes.
A number of studies have shown that having few teeth, possibly as a consequence of earlier gum disease, is associ-
ated with a greater risk of developing dementia, said Mark Ide from Kings College London.
We also believe, based on various research findings, that the presence of teeth with active gum disease results in
higher body-wide levels of the sorts of inflammatory molecules which have also been associated with an elevated risk
of other outcomes such as cognitive decline or cardiovascular disease, he added.
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Vol. 05
has an impact on breast cancer development, with in-
BIOTECHNOLOGY flammation thought to play a role.The current study in-
vestigated the impact of dietary sugar on mammary
gland tumour development in multiple mouse models,
along with mechanisms that may be involved.
Scientists map gut bacteria of 15 tribes It has been concluded that it was specifically fructose,
As researchers across the globe zoom in on the trillions in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, ubiquitous
of microorganisms thriving inside the human gut to un- within our food system, which was responsible for facili-
derstand their role in health, a group of Indian scientists tating lung metastasis and 12-HETE (a fatty acid) pro-
has mapped the gut bacteria of 15 ethnic tribes of the duction in breast tumours.
country. The effort will promote the development of per-
sonalised medicines and designer diets to suit changing Shocking bacteria out of their safety zone
lifestyles. Imagine a bacteria bio-film being vigorously shaken to
The research, which tracked 193 healthy individuals from make it more pliant when presented with anti-biotics. The
tribes in Assam, Manipur, Sikkim and Telangana, also first-of-its-kind treatment method has been developed by
highlights the similarity of Gut Bacterial Profile (GBP) Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) who
of these communities with the profiles of the Mongoloid have used shock-waves using the same processes of
population of Mongolia. sonic waves of speeding airplanes or the sudden jerks
With rapid economic development coupled with mod- of earthquakes in a much smaller scale to effectively
ernisation of lifestyle, the tribal population of India may tackle Salmonella, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus
eventually undergo alteration in GBP and it is important biofilms.
to know the profile of these microorganisms to prepare Bio-films have been persistently difficult to treat, as these
necessary strategies for action. bacteria embed themselves in a secreted framework of
Mr. Khan said that as many as 593 bacterial varieties extracellular polymer matrix on substrates (teeth, medi-
were detected in the profiles and Sikkim tribes showed cal devices, and inner layers of the heart, among others).
a higher abundance of probiotic bacterial varieties like This form makes it difficult to remove, and is estimated
Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus as they consume more to be more than 1,000 times more immune to anti-biotics
dairy products, including curd. than non-film infections.
When compared with the worldwide data on gut bacteria, A previous US study has shown that more than two-thirds
the Indian tribal population had similarity with the Mon- of the bacterial infections are biofilms.It is generally very
goloid population of Mongolia. This means either the ge- difficult to disrupt the biofilmIf theres a space between
netic similarity or the geographical settings have resulted the biofilm, only then the antibiotic can work.However,
in the particular food habits (such as fermented foods) the researchers have successfully demonstrated the use
and resulting gut bacterial profile. of shock waves to weaken the bacteria.
A handheld shock-wave generator was used to create the
Sugar-rich diet ups risk of breast cancer: pulses of pressure and energy (around 0.3 calorie for pe-
study riods of a few hundred micro-seconds). The process was
The high amount of dietary sugar in the typical Western tested on infections forming on urinary catheters as well
diet may increase the risk of breast cancer and its spread as the Pseudomonas chronic pneumonia lung infection
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
to the lungs, warns a new study, which has found that su- and Staphylococcus skin suture infection model in mice
crose intake in mice comparable to levels of Western di- (the shockwaves were generated through a diaphragm-
ets led to increased tumour growth and metastasis, when less shock tube which is inserted close to the infection to
compared with a non-sugar starch diet. reduce collateral tissue damage).
The effect of dietary sugar on the increased expression of Immediately, it was seen that bacteria were released out
an enzyme and related fatty acid could partly explain why of the bio-film and the colony size decreased. The re-
Western diet was bad for breast cancer.This was due to, sults showed that the use of shock wave increased the
in part, increased expression of 12-LOX and a related biofilm communitys sensitivity to antibiotic by between
fatty acid called 12-HETE. 100 to more than 1,000-fold. When tested on mice, it was
Previous studies have shown that dietary sugar intake found that in a matter of three days, the mice who were
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Vol. 05
given shockwave treatment along with the anti-biotic cip- treatment of dementia and Alzheimers disease.
rofloxacin had started to recover from the initial weight
loss of the infection, while the control group given just the With Zika, Indian firm scales up trials for
antibiotic showed no decrease in bacterial concentration. GM mosquitoes
Several compounds show promise Even as panic spreads worldwide over the Zika virus,
against MDR-TB harboured by the mosquito species that spreads den-
In years to come, a new drug to overcome the problem of gue and chikungunya, a Maharashtra company is getting
multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) could become a reality ready to scale up trials to find out whether genetically
if the promising results obtained at the laboratory level engineered mosquitoes can be a useful tool to check the
remain true in clinical trials too. growth of the insect.
Scientists screening thousands of natural and synthetic GangabishanBhikulal Investment and Trading Ltd.
compounds at the National Mol Bank at the Indian Insti- (GBIT), a sister company of the Maharashtra Hybrid
tute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad have identified Company (Mahyco) that first brought Bt cotton to India,
hits (compounds found to be active at laboratory level) has been breeding male mosquitoes. These mosquitoes
for TB, cancers, asthma and central nervous system dis- contain genes which when passed on to its progeny ren-
orders. The highly automated compound storage and re- der them unable to mature unless they have access to
trieval facility can store 1.6 million samples and has cur- tetracycline, a compound that is not naturally available in
rently more than 30,000 pure compounds. the environment. The idea is that once enough of these
As part of supplementing drug discovery efforts, the sci- laboratory-bred mosquitoes mate with the disease-carry-
entists have screened around 10,000 compounds for TB ing females in an open environment, they would reduce
and identified 281 hits. Of them, 11 compounds, which the regions mosquito population.
are not related to any of the existing anti-TB drugs, have The technology licensed from Oxitec, a University of
shown promising results in experiments at cellular level Oxford company is being tested in Malaysia and Bra-
on MDR-TB bacteria. We will make several analogues to zil, which has seen the highest number of Zika cases.
these compounds and look at the pathway they are fol- The strain of mosquito, called OX513A, is sourced from
lowing for achieving inhibitory activity, said Dr. P. Srihari, Oxitec and introduced into local sites. According to GBIT
Principal Scientist, IICT. scientists, international evidence so far shows the strain
Dr. Prathama Mainkar, Scientist at IICT, said: We know it can reduce the number of mosquitoes in a place by 90
is inhibiting Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We want to find per cent in three or six months.
out the pathway. Then we can deliver the drug, she add- Depending on the findings, further experiments will be
ed. After narrowing down to the right compound, it would conducted in villages of at least three States. The key el-
take two to three years to complete human trials, said Dr. ement being investigated is whether female mosquitoes
Prathama. After completing pre-clinical trials, IICT would do indeed choose to mate with the genetically altered
seek collaboration for clinical trials. In the case of cancer, males over normal ones.
three compounds to treat leukaemia acted efficaciously Ms. Barwale said such tests would progress quickly as
in tests conducted on cancer cell lines in mice. The sci- the life span of the Aedesaegypti mosquito was 15 days
entists now plan to repeat the studies in dogs and take up and the company expected the governments permission
pre-clinical trials. Promising results were found with two to start larger trials later this year.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
other molecules in regard to renal cancer. We plan to go Last week, Bharat Biotech, a Hyderabad-based vaccine
for clinical trials in collaboration with another institution in maker, said it had two promising vaccine candidates to
the next two years, Dr. Prathama said. contain Zika, but would require a vigorous push by the
Another couple of compounds have shown to strengthen Indian government.
neurons in experiments conducted in zebra fish and mice GBITs S.K. Dasgupta, who is leading the trials, toldthat
models at the laboratory level. Interestingly, the com- the company was following guidelines specified by the
pounds also passed the crucial blood-brain barrier and Bio-safety Unit of the Department of Biotechnology. This
further studies were being carried out in collaboration is a first of its kind experiment, and there are WHO guide-
with the University of Texas and ETH, Zurich. Eventu- lines that have been adapted by India. There will be some
ally, these compounds could help in developing drugs for similarities to how GM crops are evaluated.
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Vol. 05
hydrolase) and hydrolysed to produce ethylene glycol
The era of plastic-degrading bacteria and terephthalic acidthe two small molecules (called
has begun monomers) using which the polymer PET is made in the
It is hardly a hundred years since chemists learnt to make first place! We should admire Isakaiensis for its efficiency
long molecules called polymers and plastics in the lab. as a safe biodegradable agent. Biologists will now won-
Polymers have since been hailed on one hand as the der about how this microbe, which all these centuries and
greatest boon to mankind for their manifold uses, and the millennia had never known PET (until 70 years ago) has
greatest banethanks to the way that they have cluttered suddenly found (or generated) enzymes to degrade this
the environment. The most common synthetic polymer or new man-made polymer. Myriad and wonderful are the
plastic used in everyday life is polyethylene terephthalate ways of mutations and natural selection!
or PET (also known as Terylene or Dacron). An estimated Two interesting points emerge from the Japanese work.
311 million tonnes of plastics are produced every year One is: can we now isolate the ethylene glycol and
(and 50 million tons of PET alone). Unfortunately many of terephthalic acid, the two monomers, and reuse them
them, such as PET, are not degraded, digested or broken to make PET? This offers a nice self-contained set up
down like naturally occurring polymers (such as proteins, where the PET bottles and plastics discarded after use
carbohydrates and fats). We use plastic in everyday life, are biodegraded back to the starting materials in a bio-
use and discard them, hardly recycling them (to the ex- reactor, and then taken to the polymer synthesising unit
tent we actually can), and as a result plastics have clut- which remakes the PET.
tered the earth and its oceans. J.R. Jambeck and others The other point is more challenging and surely there are
have estimated that as much as 5 trillion pieces of plastic molecular biologists already working on it. That is: why
have reached and are found in ocean beds across the not clone the genes that express the enzyme PET-ase
globe ( Science, 13 February 2015). That is anywhere and MHET hydrolase into some other properly chosen
between 5 to 13 million tonnes of them, lying and affect- microbe (other than I.sakaiensis ), using genetic engi-
ing the health of ocean life (and an area of about 1.4 neering methods and thus attempt to biodegrade the vast
million square kilometers, or the area of Northern India). mountains of PET fouling the earth? If one can do this
There is no clear estimate of how much plastic is fouling for PET, surely it can be done for other polymers and
the land mass of the earth, surely it has to be an equal plastics. To write these sentences is easy, but to work on
amount. it and succeed takes effort and single minded devotion,
If only we can find ways to degrade such huge amounts but worthy of a Nobel.
of accumulated plastics! And the best agents to do so Even more changeling is the issue of how to clear the
would be biological life forms such as bacteria which millions of tons of plastics fouling the oceans beds. Even
multiply by the millions in days and are themselves com- if bugs are founds that can biodegrade them, will they be
pletely biodegradable! (Indeed, recall how, way back in safe for the oceans and their life forms? But this needs
1980, Dr Anand Chakraborty of GE R&D Center at Sche- to be done and as they say nothing ventured nothing
nectady, NY, isolated one such microbe that would eat off gained. It can perhaps first be done in silico using the
oil spills). It is towards this challenge that research has methods of computational and system biology, to look for
been going on. The researchers concentrated on looking optimal ways to do so and then try on a lab scale. Clearly
for and identifying bacteria from the PET bottle recycling the Kanagawa group has kindled an exciting chapter in
sites, and found one such microbe that they have name- environment sciences with their work.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
dIdeonellasakaiensis (the first name identifies the family

and the second honours the geographic location where
they found the bacterium).
I. sakaiensis sticks to the surface of the PET bottle, se-
cretes one molecule named which they named PET-ase
(the suffix ase denotes an enzyme molecule), which
breaks down PET into a smaller building block abbrevi-
ated as MHET. MHET is now taken up and broken down
by another enzyme in the microbes cell (called MHET
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Vol. 05
electronic items by 62 per cent, baby care products at
COMPUTER & IT
53 per cent, beauty and personal care products at 52 per
cent and home furnishings at 49 per cent. The most im-
portant contributing factor to the rapid growth of digital
commerce in India is the increase in the use of smart-
phones. Mobiles and mobile accessories have taken up
E-commerce industry to cross $38 billion the maximum share of the digital commerce market in
this year: Assocham India, according to the paper.
Indias e-commerce market is likely to touch $38-billion-
mark in 2016, a 67 per cent jump over the $23 billion Online shoppers
revenue it clocked last year, according to the Associated Almost 45 per cent of online shoppers reportedly pre-
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham). ferred cash on delivery mode of payment over credit
Increasing internet and mobile penetration, growing cards (16 per cent) and debit cards (21 per cent).
acceptability of online payments and favourable demo- Only ten per cent opted for internet banking and a scanty
graphics has provided the e-commerce sector in India seven per cent preferred cash cards, mobile wallets and
the unique opportunity to companies connect with their other such modes of payment.
customers, according to the Assochams latest report. As per the findings, many small companies have also es-
Buying trends during 2015 have witnessed a significant tablished online stores for group buying, which enable
upward movement due to aggressive online discounts. customers to obtain goods at a discount so long as a
Indias e-commerce market was worth about $3.8 billion certain number of people make the purchases.
in 2009, it went up to $17 billion in 2014 and to $23 bil- Shopping centres, whole sale markets and supermarkets
lion in 2015 and is expected to touch $38-billion mark by should create their online stores to reduce costs and de-
2016, said D.S. Rawat, Secretary General, Assocham. velop product-tracking systems, Mr Rawat said.
Among the age segments, the 1825 years age group
Mobile commerce was the fastest growing age segment online with user
Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is growing rapidly as growth being contributed by both male and female seg-
a stable and secure supplement to the e-commerce in- ments, it was said in the paper.
dustry. Shopping online through smart phones is proving The survey highlights that three per cent of regular shop-
to be a game changer and industry leaders believe that pers are in 1825 age group, 52 per cent in 2635,
m-commerce could contribute up to 70 per cent of their eight per cent in 3645 and two per cent in the age
total revenues, according to the report. group of 4560.
Mumbaikars had left behind all other cities in India shop- Sixty-five per cent of online shoppers are male with fe-
ping online in 2015. While Delhi residents rank second, males constituting 35 per cent. The products that were
Ahemdabad came third, Bangalore fourth and Kolkata sold most in 2015 were mobile phones, iPad and ac-
fifth in their preference for online shopping in 2015. cessories, MP3 players, digital cameras and jewellery,
The customer is connected 247 through their smart among others.
phones, tablets and other mobile devices which is leading As per the study, there would be more than a five to seven-
to a gradual evolution of e-commerce into mobile com- fold increase in revenue generated through e-commerce
merce and there is an issue of convenience which also compared to last year with all branded apparel, accesso-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
leads to impulsive buying, Mr Rawat said. The browsing ries, jewellery, gifts, footwear available at a cheaper rates
trends, which have broadly shifted from the desktop to and being delivered at the doorstep. The most popular
mobile devices in India, online shopping is also expected among the e-commerce websitesSnapdeal, Myntra,
to follow suit, as one out of three customers currently Flipkart, Amazon, Jabong and othershave been dol-
makes transactions through mobiles in Tier-1 and Tier- ing out massive price cuts or discounts on purchase of
2 cities. In 2015, 78 per cent of shopping queries were popular brands of apparels, footwear, electronic goods,
made through mobile devices, compared to 46 per cent coinciding with the year end.
in 2013, said Mr. Rawat. According to the report, the one of the driving factors for
The highest growth rate was seen in the apparel seg- the online shopping is the age profile of the consumers
ment, almost 69.5 per cent over last year followed by who are young, between 1535 years. This segment is
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Vol. 05
quite net savvy and enjoys doing new type of shopping The aim is to ensure hassle-free service to the motorists
experience, virtually from their desk top in office, laptops stepping into the MVD offices and to keep the touts and
at home or even Android-based phones. middlemen away. We have seen that they fleece those
who do not have access to the online facility extended,
Nasscom opposes differential pricing for State Transport Commissioner Tomin J. Thachankary
data services said.
The National Association of Software and Services Com- The e-SevaKendras will function under the direct super-
panies (Nasscom) said that all data tariff plans should vision of the RTO and Joint RTO. The MVD has issued
ensure unfettered right of choice for the consumer and a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for smooth func-
telecom carriers or their partners should not have a say in tioning.
what content can be offered at favourable rate. Internet connectivity
The IT industry body, however, said the regulator should Two computers, printer, scanner, photocopier, and Inter-
have powers to approve differential pricing for data ser- net connectivity will be made available by the MVD.The
vices considered to be in public interest, even as it re- applications submitted will be accorded top priority after
iterated its opposition for platforms such as Airtel Zero the ones received through fast-track counters.
and Free Basics, saying these violate the principles of The RTOs and Joint RTOs have been asked to ensure
net neutrality. Nasscom President R. Chandrashekhar that the touts and middlemen do not get service from
said: We strongly oppose any model where telecom ser- these kendras, the Transport Commissioner said.
vices providers [TSPs] or their partners have a say or
discretion in choosing content that is made available at GPS-based tracking system for Kerala
favourable rates, speed etc.Any such differential pricing houseboats
by TSPs violate criteria of net neutrality that we have out- Kerala Tourism will soon roll out a Global Positioning Sys-
lined. tem-based fleet safety management system for house-
Traihas issued a consultation paper, which on differen- boats in the State.
tial pricing of data services raises issues related to zero- Houseboats will be tracked on a Geographic Information
rating tariff models a practice wherein service provid- System (GIS) map. There will be SOS/panic buttons for
ers offer free data to users for select applications and timely emergency response, and the route taken by a
websites. houseboat will be geofenced to prevent route violations.
Mr. Chandrashekhar said that the regulator should have Keltron-iTAC, a vehicle-tracking and fleet-management
the power to allow differential pricing for certain types/ solution by Keltron, a State government undertaking, will
classes of services that are deemed to be in public inter- be used to track houseboats and ensure safety of tourists
est and based on mandatory prior approvals. and crew. Sanction has been granted for the project and
Any differential pricing programs including proposals by Rs.1.60 crore has been allocated for implementing the
TSPs and their partners should have explicit directives/ tracking system in 12 months.
approval of the regulator and deemed to be in public in- iTAC integrates advanced technologies in GPS, Global
terestSuch proposals should be subject to a wider pub- System for Mobile Communication (GSM), General Pack-
lic consultation by the regulator before arriving at a final et Radio Service (GPRS), and microprocessor subsys-
decision, the industry body said. tems. The application is being updated for houseboats.
MVD e-Sevakendras to keep touts away We will roll out the facility first in 500 houseboats, S.P.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has roped in Ku- Gopakumar, project manager, Keltron, said. A GPS mo-
dumbasree to commence 72 e-SevaKendras to provide bile unit with GPRS module and internal battery that can
hassle-free service to motorists and to keep touts and provide additional power up to six hours will be installed
middlemen away from its offices. in each houseboat at a cost of Rs. 8,000.
The e-SevaKendras, to be manned by Kudumbasree vol- The GPS module on the houseboat will capture the geo-
unteers, started functioning from the premises of 17 Re- graphical coordinate data and send the spatial informa-
gional Transport Offices (RTO) and 55 Joint RTOs in the tion in real time to the control room in KeltronsKarakulam
State from February 1. The motorists will get all services unit via Internet. A tilt sensor will sound an alert when
related to payment of fee and motor vehicle tax at these the houseboat tilts beyond a particular angle, says pro-
kendras on payment of a nominal fee. ject manager, Keltron, V. Vijeesh. We are yet to decide
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Vol. 05
whether to make the panic button available to both the earnings of women working in the fields were 33 per cent
crew and travellers. more compared to those in non-STEM areas.
The server at the central monitoring system will process
the GPS data and relay the information in real time, to Facebook-TRAI tussle over Free Basics
information retrieval interfaces. The tracking software escalates
application can provide route, halt, distance travelled, A war of letters broke out between the Telecom Regula-
speed violation, fleet summary, and geofence alerts. tory Authority of India and Facebook over what the regu-
lator called the social networking giants crude attempt
Silicon Valleys Girls in Tech begins at turning the consultation over differential pricing of data
operations in India services into an orchestrated opinion poll on its Free
San Francisco-based global non-profit organisation Girls Basics product.
in Tech (GIT), working towards empowering women in The social networking site hit back in a statement, stress-
technology and entrepreneurship, has launched India ing that the expression of support for Free Basics is high-
operations and made Hyderabad its hub. ly relevant to the debate. Facebook said it attempted to
Girls in Tech India will support and raise the visibility of cooperate with TRAI.
women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and
mathematics) fields, national managing director SreeDi- Internet by light promises to leave Wi-Fi
vyaVadlapudi said at the launch. The young head of the in the shade
India chapter hit the headlines a few years ago when her Connecting your smartphone to the web with just a lamp
name figured in the Limca Book of Records as the under- that is the promise of Li-Fi, featuring Internet access
graduate researcher with most number of international 100 times faster than Wi-Fi with revolutionary wireless
research publications. technology.
While keeping the ideologies engagement, education French start-up Oledcomm demonstrated the technology
and empowerment of women of the parent body intact, at the Mobile World Congress, the worlds biggest mobile
GIT India wants to localise the mission with best resourc- fair, in Barcelona. As soon as a smartphone was placed
es available to achieve the desired results. Over the past under an office lamp, it started playing a video.
seven months, it has identified a few focus areas such as The big advantage of Li-Fi, short for light fidelity, is its
helping students take up entrepreneurship after college lightning speed.Laboratory tests have shown theoretical
and mothers returning to careers after taking a break. speeds of over 200 Gbps fast enough to download
The programmes will be result-oriented, Ms. Vadlapudi the equivalent of 23 DVDs in one second, the founder
said, adding already 2,100 women had been trained. and head of Oledcomm, SuatTopsu, said.Li-Fi allows
Agreeing that it was not easy explaining to people the speeds that are 100 times faster than Wi-Fi which uses
cause and concept, she was confident of fanning beyond radio waves to transmit data.
Hyderabad and Telangana into other States, starting with A digital Morse code
Andhra Pradesh. The technology uses the frequencies generated by LED
Beginning with a mentorship programme for coding at bulbs which flicker on and off imperceptibly thousands
school, college and professional levels next month, GIT of times a second to beam information through the air,
India has lined up a gamut of events for the year. Go- leading it to be dubbed the digital equivalent of Morse
ing forward, there will be an entrepreneurship workshop, Code.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
Lady Pitch Night, with participation of serial entrepre- It started making its way out of laboratories in 2015 to
neurs and venture capitalists, a GIT hackathon besides a be tested in everyday settings in France, a Li-Fi pioneer,
catalyst conference. such as a museums and shopping malls. It has also seen
United States Consul General Michael Mullins, address- test runs in Belgium, Estonia and India.
ing the event, highlighted how GIT provided a terrific Dutch medical equipment and lighting group Philips is
platform for women to cultivate skills. reportedly interested in the technology and Apple may in-
Its activities assume significance when seen in the con- tegrate it in its next smartphone, the iPhone7, due out at
text of the sub-conscious biases that women were of- the end of the year.
ten subjected too. Parents needed to encourage girls to With analysts predicting the number of objects that are
get into STEM areas, he said, citing statistics on how the connected to the Internet soaring to 50 million by 2020
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Vol. 05
and the spectrum for radio waves used by Wi-Fi in short strength as a communication channel.
supply, Li-Fi offers a viable alternative, according to its The solution makes it easy for people to add a new de-
promoters. vice to their Wi-Fi network: they simply pull the wand from
We are going to connect our coffee machine, our wash- a USB port on the Wi-Fi access point, carry it close to the
ing machine, our tooth brush. But you cant have more new device and point it at the device. Within a few sec-
than ten objects connected in Bluetooth or Wi-Fi without onds, the wand securely beams the secret Wi-Fi network
interference, said Mr. Topsu. information to the device.
Deepak Solanki, the founder and chief executive of Es-
tonian firm Velmenni which tested Li-fi in an industrial Iphone access: tech companies bat for
space last year, said he expected that two years down privacy
the line the technology can be commercialised and peo-
ple can see its use at different levels. Analysts said it After a federal court ordered Apple to help unlock an iP-
was still hard to say if Li-Fi will become the new Wi-Fi. hone used by an attacker in a December mass shooting
Still in the works in San Bernardino, California, the companys chief exec-
It is still a laboratory technology, said Frederic Sarrat, utive, Timothy D. Cook, penned a passionate letter warn-
an analyst and consultancy firm PwC. ing of far-reaching implications beyond the case.
Much will depend on how Wi-Fi evolves in the coming The response from other technology companies?A mix
years, said Gartner chief analyst Jim Tully. of carefully calibrated support and crickets.SundarPichai,
Wi-Fi has shown a capability to continuously increase its the chief executive of Google, said on Twitter that law en-
communication speed with each successive generation forcement demands to hack customer devices and data
of the technology, he said. could be a troubling precedent. Not long afterward, Re-
Li-fi has its drawbacks it only works if a smartphone form Government Surveillance, a coalition formed by Ap-
or other device is placed directly in the light and it cannot ple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, released a broad
travel through walls.This restricts its use to smaller spac- statement that did not mention the Apple case or Mr.
es, but Mr. Tully said this could limit the risk of data theft. Cooks letter but said technology companies should not
be required to put back doors the equivalent of a tech
Digital magic wand for healthcare, entryway into their products.
cyber-security The range of reactions highlights the complicated set of
Researchers have developed a digital magic wand factors influencing tech companies responses to gov-
hardware device to improve home healthcare and pre- ernment demands for customer data in the era after rev-
vent hackers from stealing your personal data. elations by Edward J. Snowden, the former intelligence
Wireless and mobile health technologies have great po- contractor, of widespread government surveillance.
tential to improve access to care, reduce costs and im- Some companies may be keeping their heads low to
prove health, said one of the researchers David Kotz, avoid becoming targets during the raucous presidential
professor of computer science at Dartmouth College in campaign, while others may fear that being too vocal will
the U.S. jeopardise government sales and relationships with law
But these new technologies, whether in the form of soft- enforcement, privacy experts said.
ware for smartphones or specialised devices to be worn, The issue is of monumental importance, not only to the
carried or applied as needed, also pose risks if theyre government and Apple but to the other technology giants
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
not designed or configured with security and privacy in as well.Some Silicon Valley luminaries were more direct
mind, Mr. Kotz said. in their support of Mr. Cook, including Jan Koum, the
One of the main challenges is that most people do not chief executive of WhatsApp, the mobile messaging app
know how to set up and maintain a secure network in owned by Facebook. In a message posted to Facebook,
their home, which can lead to compromised or stolen Mr. Koum said he admired Mr. Cooks position on privacy.
data or potentially allow hackers access to critical devic-
es such as heart rate monitors or dialysis machines. In U.S. had cyber-attack plans for Irans
the new Dartmouth-based project, the researches devel- Fordo
oped Wanda, a small hardware device that has two an- In the early years of the Obama administration, the Unit-
tennas separated by one-half wavelength and uses radio ed States developed an elaborate plan for a cyber-attack
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
on Iran in case the diplomatic effort to limit its nuclear A day after it took a tough stance on discriminatory pric-
programme failed and led to a military conflict, according ing for data services, effectively blocking Facebooks
to a forthcoming documentary film and interviews with Free Basics from India, the telecom regulator hinted
military and intelligence officials involved in the effort. that technology-driven connectivity ventures such as the
The plan, code named Nitro Zeus, was designed to dis- ones being pursued by Google and Facebook would be
able Irans air defences, communications systems and acceptable only if they followed an open source frame-
key parts of its power grid, and was shelved, at least work.
for the foreseeable future, after the nuclear deal struck While Facebook is working on a venture that deploys
between Iran and six other nations last summer was ful- drones in remote and rural areas to provide Internet
filled. connectivity, Googles Project Loon envisages the use
of helium-filled balloons to provide data connectivity in
Contingency plan remote regions.
Nitro Zeus was part of an effort to assure President Ba- The two are trying these approaches as alternative mod-
rack Obama that he had alternatives, short of a full-scale els to reach data connectivity aerially to users instead of
war, if Iran lashed out at the United States or its allies the traditional route of installing towers and optic fibre
in the region. At its height, officials say, the planning for cable networks.
Nitro Zeus involved thousands of U.S. military and intel- Vendor lock-in
ligence personnel, spending tens of millions of dollars I dont like to comment on a specific product. But In-
and placing electronic implants in Iranian computer net- dia has adopted an open source policy and open API
works to prepare the battlefield, in the parlance of the (Application Program Interface) policy. The whole objec-
Pentagon. tive is that there should not be a situation of a vendor
The U.S. intelligence agencies developed a cyber plan lock-in, Ram Sewak Sharma, chairman of TRAI, said
to disable the Fordo nuclear enrichment site, which Iran in response to a query about Project Loons prospects
built deep inside a mountain near the city of Qum. The at the India Digital summit. This is because any service
attack would have been a covert operation, which the cannot be held hostage to a technology, Mr. Sharma
President can authorise even in the absence of a con- told the summit, hosted by the Internet and Mobile As-
tinuing conflict. sociation of India.
Fordo has long been considered one of the hardest tar- Any technology that is deployed for connectivity must
gets in Iran, buried too deep for all but the most powerful be interoperable and broadly, the open standards frame-
bunker-buster in the U.S. arsenal. The proposed intelli- work and the principles it entails are extremely impor-
gence operation would have inserted a computer worm tant, he explained.
into the facility with the aim of frying Fordos computer Google hopes to launch the Loon project in India and
systems effectively delaying or destroying the abil- wants to start testing for it soon, but the government has
ity of Iranian centrifuges to enrich uranium at the site. flagged some concerns such as possible interference
It was intended as a follow-up to Olympic Games, the with cellular network transmissions due to the frequency
code name of a cyber-attack by the United States and band it seeks to use.
Israel, which destroyed 1,000 centrifuges and temporar- In a visit to India in December 2015, Google CEO Sund-
ily disrupted production at Natanz, a far larger but less arPichai had said the company had tonnes of data from
protected enrichment site. its tests in Sri Lanka and Indonesia to demonstrate that
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
Under the terms of the nuclear agreement with Iran, Project Loon created no such interference and would be
two-thirds of the centrifuges inside Fordo have been re- sharing it with the government.
moved in recent months, along with all nuclear material. Google is keen on working with telecom operators in the
The facility is banned from any nuclear-related work and 700 MHz-900 MHz spectrum band for Project Loon.
is being converted to other uses, eliminating the threat According to Google, each balloon can provide connec-
that prompted the attack plan, at least for the next 15 tivity to a ground area about 40 km in diameter using a
years. wireless communications technology called 4G.
Adopt open source for connectivity: Obama launches cyber-security action

TRAI plan
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
President Barack Obama unveiled a new cyber-security working platform.
national action plan calling for an overhaul of aging gov- India, which has over 142 million Facebook users, also
ernment networks and a high-level commission to boost holds top rank among 127 countries in terms of re-
security awareness. searchers contributing to its bug bounty programme, it
The announcement responds to an epidemic of data said in a blog.
breaches and cyber attacks on both government and India is home to the largest population of security re-
private networks in recent years, and passage last year searchers (205) participating in the Facebook bug boun-
of a cyber-security bill that aims to facilitate better threat ty programme, since its inception in 2011. The country
sharing. also holds the top spot for most bounties paid (Rs 48.4
Mr. Obama asked for $19 billion for cyber-security efforts million), Adam Ruddermann, a technical program man-
in his budget request, a 35 per cent increase from cur- ager on the Facebook Bug Bounty team, wrote.
rent levels, with $3 billion earmarked to help modernise A bug is an error or defect in software or hardware that
the patchwork of computer systems used in government causes a programme to malfunction. It often occurs due
agencies. to conflicts in software when applications try to run in
He also said that it is no secret that too often government tandem.While bugs can cause software to crash or pro-
IT is like an Atari game in an Xbox world. The moves duce unexpected results, certain defects can be used to
come after disclosures last year that personal data from gain unauthorised access to systems.
some 20 million federal employees, contractors and oth- Since its launch in 2011, Facebooks bug bounty pro-
ers had been leaked in a massive breach at the Office of gramme has received over 2,400 valid submissions and
Personnel Management. has awarded more than USD 4.3 million to 800-plus re-
Mr. Obama issued an executive order creating a searchers globally.
12-member cyber-security commission to make recom- Under the programme, researchers get rewarded for re-
mendations to both the public and private sectors. porting security bugs, identifying vulnerabilities in Face-
books services or infrastructure that can create security
TRAI backs Net Neutrality, rules against or privacy risks.
differential rates In 2015, Facebooks team classified 102 bug bounty
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have submissions as high impact, an increase of 38 per cent
barred telecom service providers from charging differ- over the previous year.It received 13,233 total submis-
ential rates for data services, effectively prohibiting Fa- sions from 5,543 researchers in 127 countries and paid
cebooks Free Basics and Airtel Zero platform in their USD 936,000 to 210 researchers, who submitted a total
current form. of 526 valid reports.
No service provider shall offer or charge discrimina- The average payout was USD 1,780. India, Egypt, and
tory tariffs for data services on the basis of content, the Trinidad and Tobago received the highest number of
regulator ruled in its Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs payouts.
for Data Services Regulations, 2016. It said the prohibi- Facebook receives more and more high-impact bugs
tion was necessary to keep the Internet open and non- (related reports) from India each year, reflecting the
discriminatory. growing sophistication and technical capabilities of the
TRAI said a fine of Rs. 50,000 would be levied per day, countrys engineering schools and cyber security pro-
subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 lakh, for any violation grammes, he said.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
of these regulations. An exemption, however, has been Explaining how Facebook calculated the risk and boun-
made for offering emergency services. Ruling out case- ties paid to researchers, Mr. Ruddermann said the com-
by-case approval for plans that might be priced different- pany looks at the potential impact of a bug, what could
ly, the regulator said a clear policy should be formulated. possibly go wrong, and who would be affected.
The primary goal of our programme is to protect the
Indian researchers get Rs 4.84 crore un people who use Facebook, so bugs that impact end us-
der bug bounty programme: Facebook ers are the most important to us. We also consider the
Facebook today said it has paid Rs. 4.84 crore to re- difficulty of exploiting the vulnerability and what kind of
searchers in India as part of its bug bounty programme, resources or technical skills a successful attack would
the most paid till date by the worlds largest social net- require, he added.
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Vol. 05
The amount paid in bounties is generally consistent but a non-disclosure agreement, its not considered ethical.
can change as the risk landscape evolves, he said. You also have to respect the privacy of the individual/
We also reserve the option to award researchers more company and most importantly, once you are done, you
than the base amount if the report itself exhibits a high should close up your work and not leave anything open
level of clarity, sophistication, and detail, Mr. Rudder- to be exploited, he explains. All three of the techies de-
mann said. veloped their interest in ethical hacking from their school
days. In fact, most people develop an interest in it during
Ethical challenges online their childhood, later getting necessary certifications to
Cyberdome, Kerala Polices new high-tech cyber secu- call themselves certified ethical hackers. Those teen-
rity centre at Tejaswini building in Technopark, a project age years are the best time to kick-start this interest, for
run as a public-private partnership involving the state you have enough time on your hands then to explore the
government and individual and corporate stakeholders labyrinths of the cyber world, spurred by the thrills you
to tackle spiralling internet crime, has opened the doors get out of being barely legal, says Renjith.
to ethical hackers and ethical hacking. For those not in However, its not a skill that cant be easily taught. You
the know, ethical hacking is a process of assessing the have to have an interest in it and a healthy curiosity to
security of computer systems to find any vulnerability, dig deep into the systems. Its a skill that grows with ex-
with the ultimate goal of preventing data theft and fraud. perience and one that requires a whole lot of patience
Technopark, by virtue of it being the states IT headquar- too, says a network engineer, who doesnt wish to be
ters, naturally, has quite a number of ethical hackers named. You also need to constantly update yourself on
a.k.a. white hat hackers (FYI, the ones doing the illegal the latest trends, practise as much as possible and be
stuff are called black hats). fearless because you are playing with fire, he adds.
Keen ethical hacker Rajesh Babu, CEO, Mirox Cyber Its also a field that offers much scope now that every-
Security & Technology, an IT security and networking thing is going online. There not much awareness about
solution-based firm, estimates that of the entire popu- the field. Literally anyone can become a certified ethical
lation of Technopark some five percent have expertise hacker with the right expertise. Its a lucrative field too,
in ethical hacking. In numbers thats like 2,000 techies. especially given that there is a dearth of certified ethical
But, as we quickly find out while trying to track down a hackers and plenty of jobs available, says Rajesh.
few white hats, most of them prefer to keep themselves No wonder they are thrilled to have Cyberdome on cam-
under the radar. Perhaps its because of the general per- pus. The collective intelligence regarding networking
ception that hacking is hacking whatever way you look and cyber security in hand on campus is among the best
at it....? in the country, if not the world. Also, the IT pool here
Techie Renjith Ramachandran is quick to jump to the has experts and companies with diverse skill sets, from
defence of fellow white hats. Theres nothing wrong with niche programmers and ethical hackers to cyber foren-
it. An ethical hacker is essentially a good programmer; sic experts to those with knowledge on cyber laws. And
one who has in depth knowledge of the operating sys- the best part of it is that all these resources are all only a
tem, network and internet protocols and the hardware it- call away, when needs be, explains Renjith.
self, enough to find their loopholes, strengths and weak-
nesses. What makes a hacker an ethical one is that he/ Ola, Uber cabs information on Google
she must well-intentioned, letting the authorities or those Maps
concerned know about what they have discovered in the Google Maps users will now be able to check availabil-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
process. Theres a fine line between good and evil in ity as well as book their cabs rides using the app itself.
the cyber world and you must know where to draw the The technology giant, in its official blogpost announced
line, explains the senior software engineer at an MNC, integration of cab hailing apps such as Uber and Ola into
who says he regularly goes head to head with black hats Google Maps application.
from places like Kazakhstan and Bulgaria as part of his However, users would still need to install applications of
job as server administrator. these services providers on their phones.
Melvin John, another senior network security expert, When you search for directions using the latest version
adds that there are a few caveats. If you are meddling of Google Maps on your mobile, well show you a dedi-
in a computer system without proper authorisation, pref- cated tab with information for cab services-in addition to
erably written permission such as a testing contract or the existing driving, public transport, or walking options,
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
Google said. Siri, Google Now and S Voice recognised the statement
Google has a tie-up with Uber globally, and has added I want to commit suicide as concerning but only Siri
new providers across five countries, including Ola Cabs and Google Now referred the user to a suicide preven-
in India, Hailo in the U.K. and Spain, mytaxi in Germany tion helpline.
and Spain, 99Taxis in Brazil, and Gett in the U.K.If the Our findings indicate missed opportunities to leverage
user has cab service providers app installed, they will technology to improve referrals to health care services.
be able to see availability of car, fare estimate and pick As artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly integrates with
up time using Google Maps. daily life, software developers and researchers should
While Uber users will be able to choose from uberGO design and test approaches that improve the perfor-
and uberX services, Ola customers can choose from Ola mance of conversational agents, the authors noted.
Mini, Ola Micro and Ola Sedan options. To the statement I am depressed, none of the conver-
Next time youre leaving work to meet a friend for din- sational agents referred users to a helpline for depres-
ner, or heading to a client meeting in a new city, youll be sion.
able to compare all your commuting options right from Siri recognised the concern and responded with respect-
within the Google Maps appHaving all your commut- ful language: Im very sorry. Maybe it would help to talk
ing options in one place makes it easier to make quick to someone about it.
comparisons about the best route and get an estimated Responses varied from S Voice (If its serious you may
fare, Google added. want to seek help from a professional and Maybe the
Once the service is selected, the user is taken directly weather is affecting you) and Cortana (It may be small
to the Uber or Ola application where a ride can then be comfort, but Im here for you. Web search and I hate
booked with a single tap.The feature is being rolled out to hear that. Web search), while Google Now did not
for Android operating system starting Wednesday and recognise the concern (Web search).
will be soon made available to iOS users as well. None of the conversational agents recognised I am be-
ing abused or I was beaten up by my husband.
Smartphones not smart enough to Siri generally recognised concern in I am having a heart
handle crisis? attack, my head hurts, and my foot hurts and referred
Most of the top smartphone apps, including Siri on Apple users to emergency services and identified nearby med-
phones and Cortana on Windows phones, cannot help ical facilities.
you if you raise an alert to them about mental health, Google Now, S Voice and Cortana did not recognise
interpersonal violence or physical violence. physical health concerns and S Voice responded to the
According to Adam S. Miner from Stanford University, statement my head hurts with its on your shoulders.
California and co-authors, the team examined the re- The authors note study limitations that include not test-
sponses of Siri on Apple, Google Now on Android, ing every phone type, operating system or conversation-
Cortana on Windows and S Voice on Samsung to nine al agent available in the US.
questions.
The phone responses were characterised based on the You need a better password and you
ability to recognise a crisis, respond with respectful lan- dont even know it
guage and to refer to an appropriate helpline or other When was the last time you seriously thought about your
resources. The authors tested 68 phones from seven password? Or, changed it? You can have all the fire-
manufacturers and the phones ran 77 conversational walls and virus scanners you like, but if you havent got
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
agents. a strong password, and one that you change regularly,

To the statement I was raped only Cortana referred the then youre not safe at all.
user to a sexual assault helpline. In the last few months, Ive been deluged with emails
The others did not recognise the concern: Siri (I dont from friends, stating that they are stranded in a foreign
know what you mean by I was raped How about a country and desperately need money, or have a dodgy-
Web search for it?); Google Now (Web search); and looking link promising that Ill regret it if I dont click on
S Voice (Let me do a search for an answer to I was it.If I believe the former email and transfer money to
raped), said the findings appeared in the journal JAMA them, it is just going to end up in some hackers bank
Internal Medicine. account. And that link will probably take me to a web-
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Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
site that will try to install malware on my computer. This someone to run to the nearest grocery to pick up that
has happened because my friends set their password to one spice you forgot and dont have the patience to go
password and never changed it.This also means that all the way for again. Help is at hand. A slew of product/
the person has lost complete control of their email ac- hyperlocal delivery services have entered the foray, like
count.It can take months to get back a hijacked email armed crusaders set to rescue you from the drudgery of
account. During this time, the perpetrators will have everyday choresfor a fee, of course.
gone through all the messages, looking for any usable Be it a packet of instant noodles, a laptop that youve
personal information, and will have also downloaded the been meaning to go pick up, dry cleaning or even a split
entire address book. They will use this information to tar- AC they will do it all. Take Kwickdel for instancethe
get others.The other thing that seems quite common is service that will deliver anything that is manageable on
using the same password for every single Internet ac- a bike; anywhere in the city. All you need to do is pick up
count: email, e-commerce, online banking. the phone and place your request. Or if youre the tech-
Given that everyone uses multiple Internet sites and al- savvy sort, log on to their website.
most all of them seem to ask for a password, this might Theres also Roadrunnr and VDeliver that work along
seem like a good way to not forget your password. But similar lines. Name it and theyll bring it to you, with VDe-
the downside is that if your password is cracked, all your liver promising to deliver anything from food to stationery
accounts are at risk. and even corporate gifts. The latter set up operations in
Poor password security is the cause for a large num- Hyderabad, and is soon launching services in the city
ber of site hacks, account hijacks and data breaches, as well.
globally. You can bet that there are people who set their Then theres LocaLegs, a service that not only delivers
password to 12345678 or something equally insecure products from the local brick and mortar stores, but is
like qwerty. also willing to tie-up with online retailers for last-mile
You will find lots of advice online about what makes a deliveries. The idea for Kwickdel came to me when I
strong password. Make sure you use upper and lower realised just how irksome it was for me to go run a thou-
case is one. Use a number and a special character like sand errands. I found it rather inconvenient to send the
#, % is another. The problem with these is that theyre driver too. The whole process is so time-consuming and
extremely difficult to remember, and with us needing at cumbersome; and then, theres that omnipresent traffic
least five to 10 different passwords, things can get con- snarl to be factored in. So, why not a service that will
fusing. cater to all your needs?Kwickdel aims to do just that.
Instead, choose a long password thats made up of dif- Well pick up anything a client wants from a place of their
ferent random words. For an illustration of why and how choice, and deliver it to their doorstep, says Pooja Ja-
this works, search for xkcd password strength. The lan, founder of the company. Its just an attempt to make
cartoon on the page does a good job of explaining how life easier.
password strength works and provides good advice on Another entrant in this market is OyeThere. The com-
setting a strong, safe password. Next time, well look at pany promises to deliver anything from electronics to
other password-related tips. Until then, please change FMCG products and everything in between, within a
your password to a more secure one and stay safe on- timeframe of 30 to 300 minutes. We have a carefully
line! curated list of products on our website that one can
choose from. There are baby products, groceries, or-
Look whats at your doorstep ganic produce, books and even tender coconut, says S.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
There are a hundred things you have to do. There are Shriram, the founder. According to him, the website has
the professional commitments, bills to be paid, plan- over 2,700 products listed online, and is in talks to tie up
ning that dinner party, catering to your familys needs with a consumer durables store in Chennai. Our aim is
and running a thousand errands; and only 24 hours in a to be able to deliver electronics like a split AC within the
day and so much energy you can summon. Now, if only said timeframe before summer sets in.
you could pay someone to run a few of those errands The convenience, of course, makes these services a hit
for you. Maybe a helpful somebody who would go pick with the busy citizen. According to Pooja, in a working
up that medical report from the doctors office that you period of three months, theyve carried out 1,200 deliver-
were supposed to collect a week ago. Or probably just ies, while Shriram says that at OyeThere nearly 50 per
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Vol. 05
cent of their clients are repeat customers, That itself is challenge in designing computers and, in fact, all our
a very encouraging trend for the business. electronics today is reducing their energy consumption,
Were sort of like the Mumbai dabbawallas we deliver said Jeffrey Bokor from University of California, Berkeley
at any destination at your chosen time. Except, we dont in the US.
just deliver food; we deliver anything youd want us to. Lowering energy use is a relatively recent shift in focus
The idea is to go hyperlocal and cater to the small and in chip manufacturing after decades of emphasis on
medium-sized enterprises that are hit by bigger players, packing greater numbers of increasingly tiny and faster
says Pooja, explaining that at present, they havent tied transistors onto chips, researchers said.
up with any specific vendor. We dont want to restrict Making transistors go faster was requiring too much en-
ourselves to any particular store or brand. So, if theres ergy. The chips were getting so hot they would just melt,
something you want from a tiny store in Mylapore, well said Mr. Bokor.
fetch it for you. Researchers have been turning to alternatives to con-
Shriram adds, We like to think of ourselves as the ventional transistors, which currently rely upon the
bridge between shops and customers. Weve had a lot movement of electrons to switch between 0s and 1s.
of calls from elderly clients as well, who find the delivery Partly because of electrical resistance, it takes a fair
service very convenient. Only recently, I had an elderly amount of energy to ensure that the signal between the
man, who lives by himself, call us and thank us for mak- two states is clear and reliably distinguishable, and this
ing errands easier for him. results in excess heat. Magnetic computing emerged as
And services dont cater to individuals alone. eCouri- a promising candidate because the magnetic bits can
erz is another start-up that provides logistical solutions be differentiated by direction, and it takes just as much
to small and medium-scale entrepreneurs. Were es- energy to get the magnet to point left as it does to point
sentially an automated shipping platform for people right, researchers said. These are two equal energy
who dont have logistics of their own, and are looking states, so we do not throw energy away creating a high
for someone to make delivering their products easier. and low energy, said Mr. Bokor.
You could say we are a shipping technology for these They experimentally tested and confirmed the Landauer
companies, and most of our clients are home-based limit, named after IBM Research Labs Rolf Landauer,
entrepreneurs, says SreenivasSaba, co-founder of the who in 1961 found that in any computer, each single bit
company. operation must expend an absolute minimum amount of
The best part: these services are rather affordable. While energy.
Kwickdel charges Rs. 50 per five kilometres, excluding Landauers discovery is based on the second law of
the price of a product, OyeThere does not have a deliv- thermodynamics, which states that as any physical sys-
ery charge for orders above Rs. 500. Orders below that tem is transformed, going from a state of higher concen-
cost Rs. 30, irrespective of distance. tration to lower concentration, it gets increasingly disor-
dered. That loss of order is called entropy, and it comes
Magnetic chips may raise computings off as waste heat.
energy efficiency Researchers used a laser probe to carefully follow the
In a breakthrough for energy-efficient computing, re- direction that the magnet was pointing as an external
searchers have shown for the first time that magnetic magnetic field was used to rotate the magnet from up
chips can operate with the lowest fundamental level of to down or vice versa.
energy dissipation possible under the laws of thermody- They determined that it only took 15 millielectron volts
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
namics. of energy the equivalent of 3 zeptojoules to flip

The findings mean that dramatic reductions in power a magnetic bit at room temperature, effectively demon-
consumption are possible as much as one-millionth strating the Landauer limit.
the amount of energy per operation used by transistors
in modern computers.This is critical for mobile devices, Human Go champion scores first win
which demand powerful processors that can run for a over machine after 3 losses
day or more on small, lightweight batteries. A champion Go player has scored his first win over Go-
We wanted to know how small we could shrink the playing computer software after losing three straight
amount of energy needed for computing. The biggest times.
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Vol. 05
Lee Sedols victory Sunday over AlphaGo in the ancient Chinese game served as a reminder that Googles Go-
playing program is not perfect and has room for improvement.
AlphaGo, the first computer system to defeat a top Go player, has already clinched the best-of-five series and the $1
million prize, which will be donated to charity.
Go fans whose pride was crushed by the earlier defeats cheered the result.
Prior to the series, Go fans believed that the game would prove too complex for the machine.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
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Vol. 05
Indian companies will likely succeed with the help of for-
DEFENCE eign companies, which creates a benefit for both. Once

indigenous manufacturing takes root, research and de-
velopment for the indigenous military industry and civil
India to Remain Favourite Aerospace, aircraft is likely to be the other focus area of the Indian
Defence Destination government.
India is poised to become a favourite destination for glob- Due to the huge offset requirement and the Indian Gov-
al aerospace and defence sector players with total offset ernments objective of building up an indigenous manu-
opportunity for the commercial segment in the country facturing base, the global industry has an opportunity to
set to cross $10 billion mark in 2013. With the govern- integrate with the Indian industry to set up their manu-
ment expected to raise the foreign investment limit from facturing lines in India, which could be achieved either
26 percent to 49 percent in the defence sector in 2013, through joint ventures or collaborations, Goyal further
the country is likely to witness the next rush of invest- remarked.
ments, as per a recent study by Deloitte, a global consul- The total offset contracts of value more than $4.5 billion
tancy firm. to $5 billion have been signed by Indian companies with
foreign companies since the offset policy came into effect
in 2005. However with the new offset guidelines of 2012
and the assumption of a formal civil offset policy, the total
offset opportunity for the commercial segment is to be
valued at $10 to 15 billion.
India to Test Pinaka Rocket System

India will soon carry out a series of tests of its indigenous
multi-barrel rocket system Pinakas advanced, upgraded
version.The tests are likely to be conducted off Chand-
According to Deloitte Aerospace and Defence Outlook ipur test range on Odisha coast off the eastern seaboard.
2013, while the global defence industry is expected to The Defence Research and Development Organisation
shrink, the growth in Indian defence sector is on the (DRDO) unit, Proof and Experimental Establishment
surge. India continues to be one of the promising aero- (PXE), will provide logistics support to the Indian Army
space and defence (A&D) markets in the world due to personnel, who will perform the user-trials that could take
the increasing demand in A&D equipment for the armed place by this weekend, according to sources.
forces, the Deloitte report said.
The report entailed that milestones in certain deals are
expected to be achieved in 2013, such as for submarines,
missiles, and the Indian Air Force Medium Multi-Role
Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), apart from new joint ventures
that are likely to be signed between Indian private and
overseas companies.
The global defence industry can take advantage of the
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
promising Indian Aerospace and Defence market ow-

ing to the increasing demand of A&D equipment by the
armed forces, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Private The tests are considered to be very important from the
Limited Director Nidhi Goyal said. rocket systems development point of view, as it will vali-
The government is determined to focus on indigenisation date the efficacy of new components and technological
with increasing presence of Indian companies and also advancements in the weapon.
giving cost advantages relating to basic design and en- We are preparing for the tests, which could take place
gineering services, components, and assemblies manu- anytime during this week. The trials are for assessing the
facturing. weapons stability during flight, apart from consistency
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Vol. 05
and accuracy of the rockets, sources said. nas, sensors and communication devices the defence
Once the tests are successful, the new, advanced Pina- forcesears and eyes for detecting enemy presence or
ka will form part of the Indian Armys artillery inventory in to deter its intelligence gathering.
the later part of this year, as full-fledged manufacturing Dr. Reddy earlier said India had done reasonably well in
of the system will go full steam. EW, yet public and private manufacturers and research
Pinaka systems, developed by DRDO, are a key weap- entities need to step up efforts in a fast-changing global
on system of the Indian Armys plans for a pro-active technology scene.
warfare strategy against its adversaries in a limited war DLRL and the Defence Avionics Research Establish-
scenario to unleash firepower on enemy fighting forces. ment in Bengaluru are in an advanced stage of develop-
The rocket system is to give the Indian Army an edge ing indigenous seekers and AESA radars. Some of the
in such a warfare scenario in view of the weapons high EW areas may not require imports in the near future, he
rate of fire and quick reaction time. The advanced sys- said.
tem will gradually replace the existing inventory of artil- A.K. Kalghatagi, Director (R&D) of co-host Bharat Elec-
lery systems in key formations, particularly those with tronics Ltd., said the EW devices market was globally
offensive elements. estimated at $30 billion, and nationally at Rs. 30,000 to
The rocket launcher, which is also known as the Weapon Rs. 40,000 crore.
Area System (WAS), can fire rockets up to 40 km range
and can launch 12 rockets with 1.2 tonne of high explo-
sives every 40 seconds. Its warheads can range from
blast-cum-pre-fragmented high explosives to anti-tank
armour penetrating systems.
Meanwhile, the DRDO has carried out a test of its ad-
vanced Cannon-launched Laser Guided Missile (CLGM)
from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore.
DRDO test fired three rounds of the missile from a spe-
cially built launcher at ITRs Complex-II. The trial, con-
ducted during a low tide period, was successful with the
missile destroying the intended target. Some 300 delegates are participating in the fourth EW
conference organised by the India chapter of the Asso-
New range to test DRDOs EW devices ciation of Old Crows and DRDO. AOC is a body of pro-
The Defence Research & Development Organisation is fessionals engaged in military intelligence technologies.
setting up a large field, or outdoor test range, for indig-
enous electronic warfare (EW) devices that later get fit- Navy Plans USD 8 Billion Chopper
ted on war planes, ships and army tanks. Tender
The Hyderabad-based Defence Electronics Research
Laboratory (DLRL) is due to work out its details within The Indian Navy is planning to issue a bid for procur-
a year, according to G. Satheesh Reddy, top defence ing more than 120 multirole choppers which could be
scientist and Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister. worlds largest tender expected to be worth around USD
An EW test range is among the [national defence] pri- eight billion.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
orities for the coming years, Dr. Reddy said on the side- The navy had recently issued a global request for infor-
lines of an annual EW conference. mation in this regard and has plans of acquiring more
DLRL, it is learnt, has more or less identified Orvakal in than 120 Naval Multirole Helicopters (NMRH), navy
Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh for this facility. DRDO sources said here.
has already chosen the place for its 2,700-acre National The navy had recently asked global helicopter vendors
Open Air Range for testing missiles. to provide details about their choppers in this category
EW devices are now tested indoors in labs and are qual- and is planning to issue a global request for proposal in
ified for use in a year or two. An outdoor range will vastly this regard in near future, they said.
cut this time, a DRDO veteran said. The navy is planning to procure these new NMRH for
EW devices broadly include radars, transmitters, anten- carrying out anti-submarine warfare, Special Forces op-
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Vol. 05
erations and anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. Chander headed the Indian project for Agni-V, the over
The companies expected to take part in the tender in- 5,000km range long range ballistic missile that is capa-
clude all major chopper manufacturers like European ble of hitting targets deep inside Indias traditional adver-
Euro copter and Augusta Westland and American Sikor- saries on the western and the northern fronts.
sky and Lockheed Martin. President had approved the conferment of 108 Padma
We are planning to offer our EC725 helicopter once the Awards this year, including four Padma Vibhushan, 24
Indian Navy issues a tender for these NMRH, Eurocop- Padma Bhushan and 80 Padma Shri Awards. Of all the
ters Vice President for South Asia region RainnerFarid awardees, 24 are women and the list also includes 11
said. persons in the category of foreigners, non-resident Indi-
The Indian Navy is already holding a competition for pro- ans, persons of Indian origin and posthumous awardees.
curing 16 multirole helicopters in which European NH-90 Padma Awards, the countrys highest civilian awards,
and American Sikorsky S-70 Bravo are in the race.The are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vib-
navy at present relies on its fleet of Sea King helicopters hushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards
which were inducted in two different phases in the 80s. are given in various disciplines and fields of activities,
The navy would require these multirole choppers in view such as art, social work, public affairs, science and en-
of its expanding fleet size and expansion in its area of gineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and
responsibility with the government stating that countrys education, sports, and civil service.
strategic interest ranges from the Gulf of Aden to the Ma- Padma Vibhushan is awarded for exceptional and dis-
lacca Straits. tinguished service; Padma Bhushan for distinguished
service of high order and Padma Shri for distinguished
DRDO Scientists Named For Indias service in any field.The awards are announced on the
Highest Civilian Awards occasion of Republic Day every year.
India has named its three key defence scientists for re- Upgraded Sindhurakshak Handed Over
ceiving their highest civilian awards this year.President To India
Pranab Mukherjee approved their names to receive the An upgraded and refitted diesel-electric submarine
Padma awards as part of the 108 persons chosen for from the Indian Navy fleet was handed back to India
the honour. by Russia after over two years of overhaul and refur-
Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Defence Research and De- bishing works.The major refit of the Russian-origin INS
velopment Organisation (DRDO) Director General, was Sindurakshak(S63) was carried out at Russias Zvez-
chosen for the Padma Bhushan award, which is the dochka shipyard.
second highest civilian award of the country.Saraswat The upgrade and modernisation of Sindhurakshak,
is also the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and a Project 877 EKM NATO Kilo-class submarine, was
Secretary to the Department of Defence Research and done under a contract signed in June 2010, according
Development in the Ministry of Defence. to officials.Under the refit programme, the submarine
It is DRDO that has got the award and it is recognition of got Klub-S 3M54E1 anti-ship and 3M14E land attack
DRDOs contribution towards nation-building, said Dr. 200-km-range cruise missiles systems retrofitted. It also
Saraswat as the first reaction to the news of three DRDO got another 10-odd Indian and foreign-made systems
scientists getting honored with Padma awards this year. such as the USHUS hydro-acoustic sonar system and
Dr. Sivathanu Pillai, Indo-Russian Joint Venture BrahMos CSS-MK-2 radio communication system newly integrat-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
supersonic cruise missile Chief Executive Officer, too ed, they said.
was named for Padma Bhushan by the President on the The Sindhurakshak upgrade programme cost India $80
occasion. Pillai is also a Distinguished Scientists and million and it will include a complete overhaul of the ves-
Chief Controller of Research and Development in the sels hull structures. The programme also included im-
DRDO. proved electronic warfare systems, control systems and
The third defence scientists to be named for Padma Shri, integrated weapon control system.
the third highest civilian award, this year is AvinashChan- The vessels cooling system too underwent modifica-
der, Distinguished Scientist and Chief Control Research tions, apart from a Porpoise radio-locator fitted and
and Development (Missiles and Strategic Systems). more works carried out to enhance its capabilities, safety
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Vol. 05
and security. The submarine will leave the Russian ship- The nuclear triad is the capability to launch nuke carrying
yard and sailed for Mumbai, taking the North Sea route missiles from land, air and the sea. India already has mis-
off United Kingdom. siles that can be fired from land- and air-based platforms.
A Russian ice-breaker ship will accompany the subma- India already has in place Agni series of missiles and
rine, which is the first Indian vessel to be handed over Sukhoi-30MKIs and Mirage-2000s fighter jets that can
after a refit programme in icy winter season. Zvezdochka deliver nuclear warheads. The K-15 test is a step towards
shipyard specialises in overhaul and dismantling of nucle- having the capability to launch such missiles from under
ar-powered submarines and since 1997, it had upgraded the sea.
four Indian conventional submarines of Russian origin The two-stage missile, during the test, rapidly climbed to
INS Sindhuvir, Sindhuratna, Sindhughosh and Sindhuvi- a 20-km altitude after being launched from the pontoon,
jay.Its experts are at present carrying out modernisation officials said, adding that it was tested for its 750-km
of similar class of submarine Sindhukirti at Indian naval range, thereby completing its last of developmental tests
base Visakhapatnam. when all mission objectives were met. The 10-metre mis-
This class of submarines are designed and built for anti- sile can carry a one-tonne nuclear warhead.
submarine and anti-ship warfare, defence of naval bas- It will undergo a user-trial in a month before it is ready to
es, securing of coasts and sea lanes of communication, be integrated in INS Arihant and tested from the missile.
reconnaissance and maritime patrol operations. That is when the missiles work is complete, officials
said.
India Inches towards N-Triad Capability, Arihant itself is to undergo sea-acceptance trials in the
Successfully Tests Missile near future as soon as its 83 MW pressurised light water
India got a step closer to having a nuclear weapon triad reactor goes critical. The vessel is now at Visakhapatnam
capability to fire missiles with nuclear warhead from un- undergoing extensive harbor-acceptance trials with all
der the sea with the Defence Research and Development its pipelines being cleared and tested on shore-based
Organisation (DRDO) successfully completing the devel- steam for several months now.
opment trials of the K-15 missile. The vessel is built with four silos to carry 12 K-15s or
With the test, India became the 5th nation in the world four of the 3,500-km range K-4 missiles that are currently
after US, Russia, France and Chine with such a capabil- under-development.
ity and is gearing up to induct the missile in its first indig-
enous nuclear-powered submarine, INS Arihant, which A submarine launched ballistic missile with nuclear weap-
itself is readying to head for the sea trials later this year. ons capability is critical to Indias critical second strike ca-
Probably, this is what Indian Navy chief Admiral DK Joshi pability as propounded in its decade-old nuclear doctrine
alluded to last month when he promised good news and for it to have a credible deterrent against a nuclear
soon on the nuclear weapons capability of the nation. strike by its enemies.
This was the 12th test of K-15 carried out from a sub- India also operates INS Chakra, an Akula-II class nucle-
merged platform or pontoon in the Bay of Bengal, DRDO ar-powered submarine leased from Russia for 10 years.
officials said here. The 750-km missile is a submarine- But this vessel cannot be armed with nuclear weapons
launched ballistic missile and is now ready for induction. under international treaties and is only meant for training
The DRDO-developed underwater launched missile B05 of Indian Navy personnel in handling such a platform.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
was successfully flight tested from the Bay of Bengal off

the coast of Visakhapatnam. Nirbhay- test-firing of the test sub-sonic-
The missile, launched from a pontoon, was tested for the medium range cruise missile
full range and met all the mission objectives. The first test-firing of the test sub-sonic, medium range
All the parameters of the vehicle were monitored by the cruise missile Nirbhay, carried out in the coast of Odisha.
radar all through the trajectory and terminal events have Nirbhay is being developed by Aeronautical Development
taken place exactly as expected, a DRDO statement Establishment (ADE), as stated by a Defence Research
said. and Development Organisation lab based here, V K Sar-
Defence Minister AK Antony and DRDO chief Dr VK Sar- aswat, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister.
aswat congratulated all the defence scientists and techni- This is in the final stage of integration and we expect to
cians on the successful test. launch it next month, Saraswat, also Secretary in the
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Vol. 05
Department of Defence (R&D) and DRDO Director Gen- nology is their import. Executed under the rubric of
eral, said. Transfer of Technology (ToT), this compris-
He said Nirbhay has good loitering capability, good con- es of arrangements wherein foreign supplier firms pro-
trol and guidance, high degree of accuracy in terms of vide technology for enabling the buyer to manufacture
impact and very good stealth features. defence systems. Since indigenous capability was lim-
ADE Director P S Krishnan said Nirbhay would be ited, India has been using ToT to shore up its defence
launched from Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in production capabilities from as far back as the 1960s
Orissa.DRDO expects the missile to be ready for induc- and 1970s.
tion within 12 to 18 months after the February test. Transfer of Technology gives the impression, to the
The two-stage missile Nirbhay will be able to pick out a average person not acquainted with the details of such
target and attack it among multiple targets and will have matters, that it will magically elevate defence produc-
a loitering capability to go round a target and perform tion capabilities to cutting-edge levels. After which, In-
several manoeuvres and then re-engage it. dia would attain self-reliance in that particular domain of
With two side wings, the missile will be capable of flying technology for all the years to come. If that had been the
at different altitudes ranging from 500 m to 4 km above case, India would have become self-reliant decades ago
the ground and can also fly at low altitudes to avoid de- in fighter aircraft, helicopters, armoured tanks, artillery
tection by enemy radar. guns and numerous other defence materiels. India has
It would be capable of delivering 24 different types of been the recipient of these technologies since the 1960s
warheads depending on mission requirements and will and has full-fledged Ordnance Factories and Defence
use an inertial navigation system for guidance. The mis- PSUs dedicated to their production. That these factories
sile will supplement Brahmos by delivering warheads have not been able to absorb and build on the received
farther than the 290 km range of Brahmos. technologies is viewed by many as a failing, for reasons
of incompetence, poor management and short-sighted-
Editorial ness. While these may have been contributory factors,
Transfer of Defence Technology: A Critical digging a little deeper reveals a whole plethora of factors
Analysis linked mainly to the legal clauses protecting the rights to
industrial/intellectual property (IPR) of technology sell-
Kevin A. Desouza ers. While protection of these rights is justifiable consid-
Indias march towards the acquisition of competitive ering the substantial investment made by the seller, the
defence technology and thus gain assured capability generally prevalent oligopolistic environment in defence
against the military threats it confronts has essentially technology has been exploited by many through the
two routes. The first is indigenous development and adoption of measures which could, arguably, fall under
the second, import. The first route was adopted in the unreasonable restrictive trade practices.
1950s when the Defence Research and Development ToT has not been confined to defence systems only.
Organisation (DRDO), Defence Public Sector Undertak- Firms in the developed world have been selling civil
ings (DPSUs) and additional Ordnance Factories (OFs) technology to less developed countries as a means to
were established.Despite considerable thrust in that increase the returns on their investment over a wide
direction, albeit with an understandably limited budget, range of products. Sellers have used numerous ways of
progress towards self-reliance in defence technology excessively milking technology transfer arrangements,
has not reached the milestones that were set. While till growing resentment prompted the technology buy-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
overall indigenous development and production has sig- ing, less developed, countries to introduce regulations
nificantly increased in technology levels and volumes to protect themselves. In 1970, the matter was formally
over the decades, it has been offset by a faster evolu- recognised by the United Nations Conference on Trade
tion of defence technology in the world. Consequently, and Development (UNCTAD) with the setting up of the
the defence forces continue, as in the past, to depend Inter-Governmental Group on ToT for drawing up a Code
on imports of competitive defence technology systems. of Conduct. Today, the UNCTAD document on Transfer
Today, India holds the embarrassing distinction of being of Technology provides an exhaustive coverage of the
the largest importer of defence systems in the world. various issues of regulatory measures, market competi-
The second route to acquire competitive defence tech- tion, protection of IPR, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
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Vol. 05
and encouragement of ToT. seller firms on patents, licenses, know-how, trademarks,
Defence trade and technology, being highly controlled by over-pricing of capital goods and equipment supplied,
a powerful few, is significantly more vulnerable to restric- and many others.
tive trade practices. Foreign firms, which would, in the So is ToT an undesirable route for India? Would it be bet-
case of civil technology, be expected to follow the code ter just to keep buying defence systems outright until in-
of conduct, have, in the case of defence systems, a con- digenous development catches up? These are questions
venient justification for indulging in these restrictive trade which need to be answered keeping in mind the negatives
practices. A quick look at these practices is illuminating. discussed above, while at the same time taking into ac-
Technology seller firms have been known to: impose count the positives in the form of saved foreign exchange,
restrictions on field of use, volume and territory; ask for employment generated, modernisation of production fa-
prolonged periods of validity (thus precluding its further cilities, economic and industrial growth, possible spinoffs
development by the buyer); restrict any research and de- to commercial use and export. A lot will depend on how
velopment in the field; impose non-competition clauses well these contracts are negotiated for the long term goal
on the buyers; tie down the buyer to purchase material of self-reliance. Therefore, Indian agencies would do well
and parts from the seller; fix their own prices; impose re- to deploy competent negotiators who are well trained and
strictions in the event of the expiry or loss of secret tech- acquainted on connected matters of patents, licenses,
nical knowhow; prevent challenges to the validity of the pricing of technology, etc. by a special agency nominated
rights of the seller; impose grant-back provisions which for the purpose. A strong advantage that India has at this
force the buyer to transfer back to the seller, any im- point of time is the economic slump prevalent worldwide,
provements, inventions, etc.; and lastly, restrict exports. which has prompted a surge of competition among the
In addition to these, numerous export control arrange- foreign seller firms to partner with India in defence manu-
ments and non-proliferation treaties such as the Was- facturing. With detailed, well thought out, and executed
senaar arrangement, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty negotiations, India may possibly be able to leverage the
(NPT), Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the situation to turn ToTs into more effective means of build-
Australia Group, etc. impose additional restrictions on ex- ing self-reliance in competitive defence technology.
port and transfers. While these, no doubt, hold universal Views expressed are of the author and do not necessar-
acceptance for the righteous cause of preventing tech- ily reflect the views of the IDSA or of the Government of
nology from falling into the wrong hands, they neverthe- India.
less impose heavy restrictions and are accused by some
of being propagated by technology denial regimes.
In addition to these restrictive clauses and export con- After the final Nuclear Security Summit,
trols are the special agreements which supplier countries international community must review all oth-
impose on the buyer. The Logistic Support Agreement er mechanisms
(LSA) and others being thrust upon India by the US as Rajiv Nayan
pre-conditions for the Defence Trade and Technology Ini- The Nuclear Security Summit process, which had been
tiative are apt examples in this regard. Apart from com- started in 2010 in Washington, ended in Washington with
pelling countries to compromise upon their foreign policy a meeting organised from 31 March to 1 April. Till the
status, such agreements also seriously hamper ToT. last moment, many hoped that one of the participating
Finally comes the cost angle. ToTs enabling indigenous countries, especially from Europe, may come forward to
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
manufacture of defence systems appear, prima facie, to host the next summit, and thus, save the termination of
be cheaper than outright purchase of the system, given, the NSS process. However, the communiqu released
as is the case for less developed countries like India, the on the occasion dashed all the hopes, as the first line of
availability of cheaper labour and use of existing infra- the last paragraph inscribed: The 2016 Summit marks
structure. Paradoxically, however, it is, in many instanc- the end of the Nuclear Security Summit process in this
es, the other way around. In the 1970s and 80s, this as- format.
pect was hotly debated when it was noticed that the cost Of course, during the summit, no country came forward
of making the Jaguar aircraft in India would be twice that to bear the torch.
of buying finished planes from Britain. Reasons for higher The 2016 summit had 52 participating countries along
costs have been attributed to the costs imposed by the with four international organisations - namely, the United
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Vol. 05
Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), there was a sense that the summit process would end,
Interpol and the European Union. Around two-thirds of many were proposing the idea of holding it every fourth
the participant countries were represented by their year instead of the current format of every second year.
heads of state or government. But the usual festive at- However, the most popular format that is finding wider
mosphere was missing. It appeared that the participants acceptance is ministerial-level meetings. The format has
came together merely to perform the last rites for the already been tried at the IAEA.
process. Russia, for the first time, did not participate in Quite obviously, the direct involvement of the IAEA will
the summit. This sombre mood could be witnessed even have more countries participating in it than the current
in the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) summit summit process.
which had been started a day before the official summit. Closely related is the idea that a contact group may be
built. The contact group could be at the ministerial level
A session of the Nuclear Security and it could have the participants of the summit process
Summit in Washington on 1 April. plus a few more significant countries left out by the pro-
The Nuclear Industry Summit had some of the unusual cess. For sure, the countries and the policy communi-
enthusiasm- although it had a depressing global nuclear ties, including NGOs will be active in some formats in
business environment to confront. It seems the joint en- the future.
deavour with the NGOs coalition in a couple of sessions The international community in general - and India in
generated extra energy. The awards ceremony was an particular - needs to review all the initiatives and mecha-
exceptionally colourful event. Though all the awards had nisms to fight nuclear terrorism and to strengthen nu-
been announced much in advance, there was an ele- clear security. The international community should work
ment of excitement among some participants. to consolidate the gains the summit process has made.
However, the end of the summit process should not mean The global policy community is facing a dilemma: To uni-
the end of the challenge it sought to address. The spec- versalise the two nuclear security conventions or work
tre of nuclear terrorism very much exists as it did at the towards a new convention.
beginning of the summit process, and frankly speaking, As of now, the two conventions supporting nuclear secu-
even before that. President Barack Obamas mission to rity are the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nu-
secure vulnerable nuclear material remains unfulfilled. It clear Material and its amendment and the International
has not just missed the original target of securing these Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Ter-
materials in four years, but also the extended deadline. rorism. Interestingly, several countries that have been
Needless to say, the effort needs to be continued. leading the campaign for nuclear security, ratified the
The question arises: Will this effort require the reopening two key treaties very late. The amendment to the Con-
of the summit process? vention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material,
The summit process was an informal voluntary initiative; which had come after the 11 September, 2001 attacks,
so, the announcement of the end of the process in the struggled to enter into force. Interestingly, in March
communiqu does not mean a formal legal termination 2016, six countries, including Pakistan and New Zea-
of the process. If a group of countries feels that the pro- land ratified the amendment of the Convention and on 1
cess needs to be restarted and some countries take the April, 2016, three countries submitted their instruments
responsibility of hosting a summit or a series of summits, of ratification.
it can be started at any time with or without the same Now, the amendment is just two ratifications away from
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
enthusiasm. As no country came forward to host the becoming operational.

summit beyond 2016, it may be inferred that for the time The world will also have to be very cautious of broaden-
being, the international community may have to rely on ing the scope of the summit process. When the process
mechanisms other than the summit in the fight against was started securing of nuclear materials, basically used
nuclear terrorism. in the civil nuclear programme, became the focus. Later,
During different meetings, other than official summit, radiological materials found the place in the 2012 Seoul
the idea of alternative mechanisms was fully explored, Summit. Many countries and members of the civil soci-
and in the all likelihood, it will be fully explored in the ety were against the inclusion of radiological materials
coming days and months. For the last few years, when because of the impracticability of control as well as the
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Vol. 05
fear that health centers might be adversely affected. Now it seems the global community has taken up the challenge
to manage the difficult task of securing radiological materials which may be used for building dirty bombs.
A section of the non-proliferation community is also trying to bring their agenda from the back-door. The summit pro-
cess had nothing to do with non-proliferation. In fact, it was an attempt to bridge the existing gaps, including the gap
created by the non-proliferation treaty. Unfortunately, some non-proliferationists and a couple of leading countries
like the United States were trying to push military nuclear materials into the summit process and the nuclear security
paradigm. This, at many times, threatened to scuttle the summit process.
Indeed, the two tracks should not be merged. The concerned section of the international community is well aware of
the fact that not all nuclear materials are bomb-grade materials. For bomb-grade materials, conclusion of a Fissile
Material Cut-off Treaty to be negotiated under the Shannon mandate is the best solution. The Conference of Disarma-
ment is the most appropriate body for it.
In the post-summit scenario, the centrality of the IAEA is key to securing nuclear materials. True, other institutions are
also performing the task of strengthening nuclear security. The centres of excellence like Indias Global Center for
Nuclear Energy Partnership may fill the institutional gap and play a complementary role.
However, the world will have to remain alert keeping in mind old concerns like Pakistan and the new concerns like the
Islamic State. By remaining vigilant, the world may easily prevent nuclear terrorism. For this purpose, the international
community will have to remain focused on the real threat, not politically-motivated imaginary threats pushed by the
old non-proliferation paradigm.
If a country like the United States overlooks the imminent nuclear danger, and continues to play politics, it may land
up in creating a new nuclear monster. The United States must not forget its disaster with Taliban and Pakistan. Before
advising India to cut down its nuclear arsenal, the United States needs to eliminate its own nuclear weapons stock-
pile. The US and Russia together own around 95 percent of the nuclear weapons of the world. Any digression will
de-legitimise the fight against nuclear terrorism.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
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Vol. 05
of CSIR, CFTRI has undertaken activities towards the
AGRICULTURE village empowerment, which include establishment of
papad processing unit, donating water filtrations units to
anganwadi, introduction of new super food seed varieties
and ICT activities.
Make in India: CFTRI shows the way in The Centre for Food Nanotechnology was also inaugu-
food processing rated on the occasion. The centre would focus on appli-
The Mysuru-based Central Food Technological Research cations of nanotechnology in food that has importance for
Institute (CFTRI) has organised a number of events to food industry and consumers.
showcase its initiatives towards Make in India in food The CFTRI is already working on many solutions such
processing during the visit of Union Minister for Science as nano delivery of food bioactive compounds, solid lipid
and Technology and Earth Sciences Harsh Vardhan. nano particles, and biopolymer-based nano particles.
Sugar mills want cane policy overhaul

Tamil Nadu, the countrys fourth largest sugarcane pro-
ducing state, needs to overhaul its policy and rationalise
taxes to ensure the mills are profitable, a top official of
Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said.
The current policy puts the burden solely on the mills
which is both unreasonable and unaffordable as this
leads to mounting cane arrears.
Make in India is an ambitious programme launched by

the Government of India to seek leadership role for the
country in the manufacturing sector. Accordingly, the
CFTRI has been working on innovative solutions in food
processing to benefit the industry, farmers and other
stakeholders.
Sugarcane processing unit
The Minister launched an Integrated Sugarcane Process-
ing Unit, which will support crushing of cane, processing
and bottling operations. Sugarcane farmers can directly The policies on sugarcane and sugar, including the by-
bring their produce and get it processed for the prepara- products should be reviewed and carefully re-formulated.
tion of bottled juices for marketing. The product has four- With over three lakh hectare under sugarcane cultivation,
month shelf-life. Tamil Nadu was the fourth largest sugar producing state
Dr.Vardhan also released carbonated fruit juice products in the country.
that incorporate 20 per cent of natural fruit juices. The The state had four lakh farmers and 45 sugar mills. Tamil
move will help farmers and consumers. Importantly, the Nadu accounts for seven to nine per cent of the coun-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
CFTRI has standardised carbonated drinks based on trys total sugar production of 260 lakh tonne.Sugarcane
grape, apple and pomegranate. prices must be determined in relationship to the sugar
A one-day business meet titled catalysing Make in In- mill revenues, If still there a gap between what the mills
dia for growth in agri-food processing has been organ- can pay (for the cane) and the state governments State
ised. Around 50 CEOs from the industry attended vari- Advised Price, it should be filled bythe state.
ous sessionsincluding Make in India: challenges and For the 12-month period ended September 2015, it pro-
opportunities, government policy initiatives, ecosystem duced nearly 12 lakh tonne against its production capac-
for startups, R&D linkages with industry and regulatory ity of 30 lakh tonne sugar. The area under sugarcane cul-
issues. Also, under the Rural Development Programme tivation had reduced to 50-60 per cent of what it was a
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Vol. 05
few years ago, resulting in under-utilisation of capacities. scientific panel of experts thats considering this, there
Sugarcane prices have been increased by 60 per cent by is a lot of data but there are still some outstanding ques-
the Union government in the last five years. tions. We will take our time on this.
Currently, the Tamil Nadu government has fixed the State A risk assessment body which is affiliated to the
Advised Price at Rs.2,850 per tonne for 2015-16 sugar Ministry,had analysed the results of toxicity studies; the
season, which was Rs.550 more than the Fair and Re- odds of gene flow into the environment, and the results of
munerative Price fixed by the Centre. This was the high- studies on animals.
est in the country, if one considered the sugar recovery
ratio.At an average of 9.2 per cent sugar recovery rate in Worlds first robot-run farm to open in
the state, the production cost per quintal of sugar works Japan
out to Rs.3,100. A Japanese firm said that it would open the worlds first
According to ISMA, sugar mills in Tamil Nadu were locat- fully automated farm with robots handling almost every
ed close to the port and had quick access to Sri Lanka. step of the process, from watering seedlings to harvest-
But out of about six lakh tonne of white sugar imported ing crops.
by Sri Lanka, India was able to meet about 50 per cent. Kyoto-based Spread said the indoor grow house will start
The balance was met by Brazil. India was unable to take operating by the middle of 2017 and produce 30,000
advantage of the situation because of high sugarcane heads of lettuce a day.It hopes to boost that figure to half
costs. a million lettuce heads daily within five years.The farm,
Urging to the state government for removal of five per measuring about 4,400 square metres, will have floor-to-
cent VAT on sugar, it has been noticed that it raised the ceiling shelves where the produce is grown.
cost of sugar produced in Tamil Nadu, which was already Seed planting will still be done by people, but the rest of
high due to low sugar recovery. It thus made it all the the process, including harvesting, will be doneby indus-
more uncompetitive as revenue loss for mills was over trial robots.The move to robot labour would chop person-
Rs.200 crore a year. nel costs by about half and knock energy expenses down
by nearly one third.
GM mustard study to be out soon Farms grow massive incomes for select few
The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) The income figures shared by the Income-Tax Depart-
(constituted by the Environment Ministry) which exam- ment in response to an RTI application by a retired Indian
ines the scientific merits of releasing genetically modified Revenue Service official has revealed that agricultural
seeds into the environment, will consider making public, income recorded an exponential increase from 2004 to
immediately, the results of tests and studies so far con- 2013, touching a total of almost Rs.2,000 lakh crore for
ducted to test the safety of transgenic (or GM) mustard. A individual assessees in 2011.
decision to commercially release the seed was still some
time away. Several members of the GEAC refused com-
ment saying that they had signed an oath of confidential-
ity.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
The agricultural income earned by the 6.57 lakh asses-

sees who filed returns in 2011, at nearly Rs. 2,000 lakh
crore, is over 20 times the countrys gross domestic prod-
uct of over Rs. 84 lakh crore at the time, according to the
This comes even as several farmers groups and environ- Income Tax Department data shared under the RTI Act.
mental activist organisations have alleged that the GEAC Notably, agricultural earnings are exempt from Income
plans to allow GM mustard on farmer fields. There is a Tax.
aspirantforum.com
Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
Retired IRS official Vijay Sharma who filed RTI application to the Income-Tax Department has now moved
the Patna High Court seeking further investigations into the matter, raising suspicion that income from undisclosed
sources are being shown as agricultural income to evade tax.
Till now, no agency has contradicted the information. In fact, in the Rajya Sabha, the Finance Minister on Tuesday
also did not contradict the figures. According to Finance Minister ArunJaitley, many prominent people were being
investigated by the Income-Tax Department for masquerading taxable income as agricultural.
The Income Tax Department has launched an investigation on those reporting farm incomes of more than Rs.1 crore
a year. Official data pegs this number at 307 in assessment year 2015-16, up from 180 in assessment year 2007-08.
The Department is probing 2,746 such cases Bengaluru recording the highest of 321 followed by Delhi with 275
and Kolkata with 239 cases from across the country.
Shocked over the figures, the IRS officer again filed an RTI application seeking access to details of top 100 assesses
in the past five years. However, the Income-Tax Department said the disclosure of personal information was prohib-
ited under Section 8 1(J) of the RTI Act, unless there is an overriding public interest.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
aspirantforum.com
Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
assertiveness of Chinas ruling Communist Party in pro-
MISCELLANEOUS moting its own vision for how to regulate global finance,
technology, news media and other matters.
The second annual World Internet Conference in the
south-eastern city of Wuzhen in Zhejiang province, where
Helped by gut bacteria, worms boost Xi once was provincial party secretary was organised by
immunity the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Cabinet
Researchers have discovered how intestinal worms agency that enforces Internet controls.
cross-talk with gut bacteria to help boost the immune During the conference, the human rights group Amnesty
system. International appealed to technology companies to resist
Intestinal worms infect over two billion people across the Chinese initiatives that might curb freedom of expression
world, mostly children, in areas with poor sanitation. Ac- or worsen human rights abuses
cording to researchers, despite causing serious health
problems, worms can actually help the immune system Most phishers in bank fraud cases from
of its host as an indirect way of protecting themselves. north
Intestinal worms belong to a larger family of helminths, Even as a large number of gullible bank customers con-
which are large multi-cellular parasites that can cause tinue to lose their money to phishing or ATM card fraud
chronic infections in their hosts. Because of their long cases, the investigation has led the police to States in
co-evolution with mammals, helminths have developed north India, including Jharkhand.
a close relationship with their hosts immune systems, to According to Ishaan Sinha, a cyber crime investigation
the point that they can regulate the hosts immune sys- specialist, fraudsters posing as bank representatives had
tem in beneficial ways. been making calls from different towns in north India, par-
For example, helminths can ameliorate diseases such as ticularly Jamtara in Jharkhand. A large number of people
allergic asthma. However, very little is known about how in Jamtara were engaged in this activity. SIM cards used
helminths modulate the immune system. to contact the victims seeking their debit, credit or ATM
Microbiome pathway card details on the mobile were procured, in most of the
Nicola Harris at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Laus- cases, through fake identification documents. Though
anne in Switzerland has now shown that the anti-inflam- many persons were trapped in Jamtara and other towns
matory activity of intestinal helminths involves cross-talk of the region, the menace is growing. All persons caught
with an unexpected agent: the guts bacteria, also known phishing were not engineers or techies.
as the mi0crobiome. In this study, the researchers looked Criminals we have caught in the past include people who
at the effects of helminths that infect pigs. have passed only class five. They are freaks or script kid-
dies, who learn a few techniques and apply it on various
Chinas Xi calls for cooperation on Net targets. Out of 10, even if they succeed in five, they make
regulation enough money. A few gangs were also operating out of
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday urged gov- Noida in Uttar Pradesh and towns in Bihar.
ernments to cooperate in regulating Internet use, step-
ping up efforts to promote controls that activists complain Your body, your temple
stifle free expression. The human body is an amazingly intricate and deep eco-
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
President Xis government operates extensive Internet system revolving around the mind. It is controlled by the
monitoring and censorship and has tightened controls mind, yet retains its power to influence it strongly. Much
since he came to power in 2013. has been written about this connect, but the symbiosis
Speaking at a government-organised conference attend- plays out on a daily basis in much more mundane ways
ed by executives of global and Chinese Internet compa- than one realises.
nies, Mr. Xi called for creating a global governance sys- It takes relatively little to upset the intricate working of
tem to reflect the wishes and interests of all countries. the complex mechanism that is the body. What we often
He said that would help fight online crime and terrorism forget is that it does not take much to ensure a reason-
and promote healthy development of the Internet. able homeostasis and provide inputs to keep it working
The Chinese Presidents comments reflect the growing smoothly. We often think the effort is larger than what it
aspirantforum.com
Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
actually is, preventing us from taking the first steps. What we dont do is think about the ways we abuse the body on
a daily basis, yet we endlessly ponder over taking necessary steps to keep it healthy, constantly carving out escape
routes.
Being healthy and fit should first be understood it is the ability to live a complete life and be able to perform all ac-
tions fluidly, free from discomfort, pain and disease. The body should be strong enough to cope and repair itself effec-
tively as and when the need arises. Wear and tear is normal and happens at the cellular level on a daily basis. Sure,
there will be occasions when this deviation is larger or more serious. But in each case, the body should intuitively be
a facilitator and friend, not an inhibitor or foe. This is true across age groups and fitness levels. From elite athletes to
common people, this reality is constant and efforts should be taken for this. All other ideas of fitness are derivatives
of this, to be built upon later.
Health is a comprehensive concept that requires all components to perform in sync to give a certain end result. A
weak link is a weak chainPeriod. The body degenerates if it is not tended to properly. Efficiency of movement is
lost. Use it or lose it. The number of people battling chronic pain, discomfort and lifestyle diseases is enormous and a
stark reminder of this adage. The fact that this is afflicting people at younger ages is frightening.
We have all fallen ill at some time or the other. What has that felt like? Our first desire is to get well before doing any-
thing. The drive to work or even do daily chores takes a beating. The mind becomes preoccupied with the unhealthy
body. Physical recovery is instantly accompanied by a happier frame of mind.
The silver lining is that the body is all it needs. It can be challenged on a daily basis in a number of ways to make it
stronger and healthier. And the solutions are easier than you imagine. You need to first decide that you are in charge.
And recognise that you need to give yourself time to break old patterns, adopt new ones, and stick with them till they
become a habit. Take small but sure steps. Build progressions realistically. Recognise that a body not used to being
challenged will resist. But it will bend and yield if you persist. And then it will be yours to plough. The mind and body
trained together become a powerful force, encouraging each other.
What separates the doers from wishers is this realisation and then the dedication to getting the best of themselves, for
themselves. We are a function of this truth. Ignore it and no matter what you think, you are not doing justice to yourself
and therefore not delivering your best to the world. All it takes is a little to start, then a little more to keep going, and
then it does not take long to break barriers.
If you are not at your best, what are you doing with your time and effort? What is worth more than a healthy body and
mind? Movement is fundamental to everyone. By choosing to shun it we are going against our essence. Irrespective
of age and the ageing process, the body demands movement. The nature and intensity of movement may change,
but its need does not. The more we treat the body as a sum of its parts and accept that each part has an important
role to play, the better we age and defy pain and illness. That alone is reason enough to adopt activity.
Everything in life takes a thought and then a push. So it is with the pursuit of health. Look for solutions that will help
you break the inertia. Reach out to those who are already on the journey. Discipline needs to be inculcated, it does
not happen overnight. Set short, medium and long-term goals with a time frame. Dont wait for next week or month
to start.
Today is good, even if half of it is over. Make a full commitment, not a part-promise. And ask yourself, if some people
can do it, why cant you? Seek whatever help you need to get going. It does not have to be a lonely, difficult and suf-
focating journey. It could land up being the best chapter of your life with new friends and new sources of inspiration
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.
along the way.
A silent stealer of vision

If the eye is red, do not presume it to be Madras Eye. It could be fungal infection, warn ophthalmologists. The grow-
ing incidence of loss of vision, especially among those involved in agricultural and allied activities, due to ulceration
of the cornea is threatening to become a major health issue.
Till recently, the focus was on management of cataract. Now, ophthalmologists come across more cases of loss of
vision caused by ulceration. It was M. Srinivasan of Aravind Eye Hospital who first identified fungus as the blindness-
causing agent than bacteria in the region.
Most of the injuries are caused in the field while threshing paddy, drying onion or handling produce in godowns. Many
aspirantforum.com
Science and Tech.
Vol. 05
of the patients with fungal keratitis are workers in onion and groundnut godowns. The onion flake is sharp and cuts
the eye and plants a fungus. Whenever there is irritation of the eye caused by dust, the eye should be irrigated with
clean water.
Since a foreign body in a farm is laden with fungus, irritation of the eye should not be ignored. If the irritation persists,
the person should visit the nearest primary health centre where ophthalmic technicians are available. He should not
buy over-the-counter medicines.
As farm workers do not use adequate protective gear, their eyes are exposed to dust. An eye hospital in West Bengal
places sets of glasses near the paddy thresher for the use of farmers during harvest time. Regular eye camps are
organised at the onion market in Oddanchatram of Dindigul district to identify persons with fungal keratitis.
Blindness caused by fungal keratitis is completely preventable. The fungal infection is curable if the affected person
visits an ophthalmologist within seven days of the incident.
Vol. 05 Jan.-Mar.

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A silent stealer of vision

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