New Research Project Proposals Selected Under IMPRINT-2

For advancing research in the high education institutions, the government has approved 122 new research projects under IMPRINT-2 covering domains like energy, security, healthcare, advanced materials, ICT, security/defence etc.

• IMPRINT (IMPacting Research INnovation and Technology) is a first-of-its-kind Pan-IIT and IISc joint initiative to develop a new education policy and a roadmap for research to solve major engineering and technology challenges that India must address and champion to enable, empower and embolden the nation for inclusive growth and self-reliance.
• The ten domains that represent the most important areas for the country along with their coordinating institutes are:
  
  • Healthcare Technology
  • Computer Technology
  • Advance Materials
  • Water Resources
  • Sustainable Habitat
  • Security and Defense
  • Manufacturing Technology
  • Nano-technology Hardware
  • Environment and Climate
  • Energy Security
• The scheme was released in 2015 by Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• The principal motto remains the same for each domain: (a) to create an education policy for inculcating scientific temperament and innovation skill, and (b) to develop the research roadmap for technology preparedness. 

U.K. to have New Organ Donation Law

The U.K. government has announced new plans to change the law for organ and tissue donation to address the urgent need for organs within Indian-origin community in the country.

• Under the proposed new system of consent for organ and tissue donation, it will be presumed that people have agreed to transplants unless they specifically opt out.
• Like India, the UK followed the opt-in system - whereby families’ decision to donate organs of their loved one after death is discretionary.
  
  • The UK government is now moving towards adopting legislation favouring the opt-out system to address the growing crisis in the country.
• The new system is expected to come into effect in England in 2020 as part of a drive to help Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people.

Background

• The announcement came after a report called on the National Health Service (NHS) to take more proactive action to address the high death rate among Indian-origin people in Britain due to low levels of organ donation within the community.
  
  • 21% of people who died on the organ donation waiting list in the U.K. last year were from a BAME background.
• The ‘Organ Donation: Breaking Taboos Amongst British BAME Communities’ report by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was aimed at studying the low levels of donation among BAME communities in the UK.
  
  • According to NHS records, only 7% of donors last year were from BAME backgrounds, with Indians accounting for just 1.9%.
• These communities are seen as generally less inclined to opt for organ donation, largely due to deeply-entrenched cultural and religious beliefs discouraging organ donation.
  
  • Family refusal is one of the biggest obstacles to organ donation among the UK’s Asian communities since death is a sensitive and highly emotive issue for them.

Way Forward

• The success of this initiative by UK will depend on the degree and efficacy of engagement with the BAME populations.
• For the programme to succeed, it will have to sufficiently addresses the core issues surrounding beliefs and specific cultures and aims at normalising and encouraging prior family conversations about organ donation in these families.
• Evidence from countries like India show that it is possible to counter religious and cultural beliefs around organ donation.
  
  • India has seen a 10-fold increase in its organ donation consent rates over the last decade as a result of sustained public awareness programmes, policy initiatives, and multi-stakeholder collaboration, the findings reveal.

U.S.-China Trade War can make Indian Products Competitive: CII

According to Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), with the U.S. imposing an additional 25% duty on imports worth $34 billion from China, certain Indian products may become more competitive.

• According to the CII report ‘New Export Opportunities for India in Trade with US and China’, India should focus on new categories such as machinery, vehicles and transport parts for export to the US where it has a competitive advantage in the US-China trade war.

Key Highlights

• India can focus on several goods for expanding its exports to the U.S. and China after the increase in duties by both countries on imports from each other.
• Top exports from India to the U.S. which are covered in the list of items for which the tariffs have been raised include pumps, parts of military aircraft, parts for electro-diagnostic apparatus, passenger vehicles of 1500-3000 cc, valve bodies and parts of taps.
  
  • Exports of these items stood at more than $50 million in 2017, according to CII, and can be increased with concerted efforts. Countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia have increased their exports of these products to the U.S. in recent years.
• Between 2012 and 2017, China’s exports to the US have moved up the value chain with accelerated growth in high-technology items such as telecommunications equipment, automotive and cell phones.
  
  • Considering the fact that the US has raised tariffs for imports from China, the report suggested that products such as intermediate parts for the defence and aerospace sector, vehicles, and auto parts and engineering goods have a higher export potential.
  • The report suggests that the trade dialogue with the US should be strategised taking into account India’s competitive advantage in these products.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

• CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization, playing a proactive role in India's development process.
• Founded in 1895, India's premier business association has members from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of enterprises from around national and regional sectoral industry bodies.
• CII partners with industry, Government, and civil society, through advisory and consultative processes to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India.

Trade War: Set to Become a Reality

Impact of Roads on Wildlife

The Centre has asked the state of Karnataka to consent to allowing night traffic on the highway passing through Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

Background

• After reports of frequent roadkills in Bandipur, the administration in June 2009 restricted vehicular traffic between 9 pm and 6 am on two national highways passing through the reserve.
  
  • Protests by Kerala, however, led to the order being withdrawn.
  • After a PIL was filed, Karnataka High Court restored the ban on night traffic in July 2009.
• After the Bandipur matter went to the Supreme Court, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in a report, in March 2018, recommended maintaining status quo.
• However, before the submission of its report, the Road Transport Ministry asked Karnataka to consent to a proposal to open the road 24×7 with certain mitigation measures like:
  
  • An elevated road of over four 1-km stretches to provide wildlife passageways below, and
  • Fencing the entire highway passing through the reserve with 8-foot-high steel wire barriers.
• The argument for opening up the restricted road is that the alternative road is 30 km longer, and apparently passes through hilly terrain — increasing travel time, fuel consumption, and pollution.
• Also, it is argued, traffic through a tiger reserve endangers wildlife even during the day, so fencing and passageways are a better idea.

Impact

• The question is whether a 30-km detour to safeguard one of India’s most wildlife-rich forests is an unaffordable economic burden or a minor concession necessary in the national interest.
• The impact of road developments on biodiversity has become one of the central environmental issues when planning for road infrastructure.
• Wild animals are vulnerable to vehicular traffic passing through forests, especially at night when, blinded by bright headlights, even swift species like cats freeze.
• Over time, as animals learn to avoid roads, busy multilane highways become barriers that hinder wildlife movement, fragment populations, and restrict gene flow.
• By blocking access to potential habitats, roads, railway lines and irrigation canals act as a major contributor to habitat loss.

India’s Policy

• In September 2013, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), the apex advisory body to the central government on all wildlife-related matters, said no to new roads through protected forests.
  
  • However, it was open to the widening of existing roads with adequate mitigation measures irrespective of the cost, only if alternative alignments were not available.
  • The government accepted this as policy in December 2014.
• In February 2018, the NBWL made it mandatory for every road/rail project proposal to include a wildlife passage plan as per guidelines framed by Wildlife Institute of India, an autonomous wildlife research body under the Environment Ministry.
  
  • However, features like underpasses are unlikely to suffice in dense wildlife-rich forests where too many animals compete for space.

National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)

• NTCA is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 for strengthening tiger conservation.

National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)

• National Board for Wildlife is a statutory Board constituted officially in 2003 under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. 
• The NBWL is chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister and is responsible for promotion of conservation and development of wildlife and forests. 
• The board is ‘advisory’ in nature and can only advise the Government on policy making for conservation of wildlife.
• It is an important body because it serves as an apex body for the review of all wildlife-related matters and for the approval of projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries

Bandipur Tiger Reserve

Man-animal Conflict to be Listed as Disaster by UP Govt

The Uttar Pradesh government has given its in-principle approval to bring man-animal conflict under listed disasters in the State Disaster Response Fund to ensure better coordination and relief during such incidents.

• The move will enable faster relief, creating awareness, ensuring police support in areas when such conflicts are reported, and proper guidelines to handle situations when wild animals venture in human in-habitation.
• The recognition of man-animal conflict as disaster under SDRF is a paradigm shift in handling such situations which will ensure better synergy among agencies and quicker relief to affected people.
• The declaration of such conflict under SDRF will also mean that police and local administration will step in as soon as such a situation.

Background

• “Living with the Wild: Mitigating Conflict between Humans and Big Cat Species in Uttar Pradesh” report by the UP Forest Department and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has analysed the patterns of attacks, and outlines the circumstances in which these shy animals injure or kill humans.
• It found that most attacks (90.6%) took place during the day, when the forest-dependent communities are most active. This suggests that tigers aren’t actively seeking out human beings as prey and “most human-tiger encounters are caused by humans accidentally disturbing tigers that are resting in fields or fringe forests areas during the day.”
• Since human beings are not a part of the tigers’ food chain, the attacks take place because the forest and fields are not separated by a buffer zone.
  
  • Herbivores, which are the natural prey of big cats, enter these crop fields in search of food.
• The report also suggests the changes in human behaviour that could help reduce the number of attacks — such as not entering forests alone, not leaving children unattended, and building toilets at home.
• Uttar Pradesh has 23 wildlife sanctuaries, besides Dudhwa National Park and Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, according to the data of a report by Wildlife Trust of India and the state government.
• The Wildlife Protection Act does not have provision for compensation in case any human being or cattle is killed by a wild animal within a protected area or sanctuary.
• The government gives ex-gratia at fixed rates in such cases a view to reduce retaliatory killings.
  
  • However, it is a time-consuming process and may take a year to get relief, that too if inquiry clears such a payment.
  • Delays in getting ex-gratia triggers anger among local population against protected animals which often results in tigers and leopards being killed by villagers.

Man-animal Conflict

• Incidents of wild animals straying into human habitat poses a threat for both the animal and the people residing in that area and calls for serious questioning of the administration’s attitude towards the safety of the animals as well as the people.

Causes of Man–animal Conflict

• Destruction of natural habitat of the wildlife.
• Overlap in the needs of wildlife animals and humans.
• Land use transformation, growth of human population as well as wildlife population etc. can be other reasons.

Effects of Man-animal Conflict

• Damage to agricultural crops and property
• Resource scarcity and livelihood effects on humans
• Negative impact on wildlife population

Solutions

• Creating artificial and natural barriers across wildlife and human habitats.
• Restoration of wildlife habitats to their original form.
• Relocation of human population settlements.

Eco Bridge

• An eco bridge or the eco conduct is an overpass that allows easy crossing of animals across human-made barriers.
• The intervention requires the laying of fertile soil to grow grass and plants over the structure, so that fragmentation of the reserve forest is camouflaged.

Dudhwa Tiger Reserve

• The Dudhwa Tiger Reserve is a protected area in Uttar Pradesh that stretches mainly across the Lakhimpur Kheri and Bahraich districts.
• It comprises of the Dudhwa National Park, Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary.
• The northern boundary of the park is being constituted by the Mohana River flowing along the Indo-Nepal border whilst the Southern boundary is formed by the river Suheli.
• It includes three large forest fragments - marshes, grasslands and dense forests, amidst the matrix dominated by agriculture.

Pilibhit Tiger Reserve

• Pilibhit Tiger Reserve is located in Pilibhit district, Lakhimpur Kheri District and Bahraich District of Uttar Pradesh.
• Pilibhit Tiger Reserve was declared in September 2008 on the basis of its special type of ecosystem with vast open spaces and sufficient feed for the elegant predators.
• It is India’s 45th Tiger Reserve Project.
• The northern edge of the reserve lies along the Indo-Nepal border while the southern boundary is marked by the river Sharada and Khakra.
• The study done by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) shows that Dudhwa-Pilibhit population has high conservation value as it represents the only tiger population with the ecological and behavioral adaptations of the tiger unique to the Tarai region.

Geometry Has a New Shape: Scutoid

Recently, scientists discovered a new shape called “Scutoid” after studying the human epithelial cells.

• The scutoid  looks like a twisted prism which has five sides on one end and six on the other and a triangular surface on one of its longer edges. It is the form that a group of cells in the body takes in order to pack tightly and efficiently into the curves of organs.
• The scientists named the shape "scutoid" after a triangle-shaped part of a beetle's thorax called the scutellum.
• They used microscopy and computer imaging to identify this shape.
• Till now, the epithelial cells were believed to be columnar or bottle-like shaped.

Epithelial Cells

• Epithelial cells are the safety shields of the body. They are one of the four kinds of tissue that forms human body. The four basic types of tissues are: epithelial, connective, muscular, and nervous tissue.
• They line most surfaces in an animal's body, including the skin, other organs and blood vessels.
• They are a barrier between the inside and outside of the body and are often the first place that is attacked by viruses.
• Epithelial cells are specialized for absorption, secretion or to act as a barrier. Eg.-
• Epithelial cells secrete hormones into blood vessels, absorbs and transports nutrients from the foods and process it for energy.

Significance

• This will encourage more efficient  kind of cell packing, accurately mimicking nature's way to efficiently develop tissues.
• It is significant for the understanding of epithelial organs.
• This study opens the door to understanding how organs are formed during their development and what might be missing in some diseases in which this process is altered.
• Apart from biology, this is will have wide ranging applications in mathematics and other related fields.

Launch of Chandrayaan-II postponed

The launch of India’s second mission to the moon has been delayed till January 2019, which was earlier set for a launch in October, 2018.

• Two recent setbacks are being cited as the reason for this delay:
  • Earlier this year, the ISRO lost communication with GSAT-6A, a military communication satellite, because of power failure.
  • In September, 2018 failure of the PSLV- C39 mission, which was carrying the IRNSS-1H navigation satellite. It couldn't be placed in orbit because the heat shield refused to open in the fourth stage.

Chandrayaan-II

• It will be 1st attempt by India to land a rover on any celestial body. The rover will land on south-pole of the Moon.
• It is India's second mission to the Moon and is totally indigenous.
  
• Launch Vehicle: GSLV F-10
• Purpose: Collect data on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water ice.
• Unlike the Chandrayaan-I, where Moon Impact Probe (MIP) crash-landed on the surface of the Moon, the Chandrayaan-II will soft-land its Lander with Rover on the Moon.
  
• After approaching the 100 km lunar orbit, the Lander covering the Rover will depart from the
  Orbiter.
• After a controlled fall, the Lander will soft land on the lunar surface at a particular site and dispose of the Rover.

• An orbiter is a space probe that orbits a planet or other astronomical object
• A lander is a spacecraft which descends toward and comes to rest on the surface of an astronomical body. By contrast with an impact probe, which makes a hard landing and is damaged or destroyed so ceases to function after reaching the surface, a lander makes a soft landing after which the probe remains functional.
• A rover (or sometimes planetary rover) is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of a planet or other celestial body.

• The six-wheeled Rover will function solely on solar power and the instruments on the rover will perform a chemical investigation which includes collecting various rock and soil samples.
• After observing the lunar surface, the Orbiter will transmit back data, which will be useful for analysis.

Chandrayan-I

• Chandrayan-I was India’s first mission to Moon launched in 2008 using the PSLV- C11 and discovered some "magmatic water" and hydroxyl (OH) on a Moon crater.

Note:

Magmatic Water

• Also called juvenile water.
• It is the water derived from or existing in molten igneous rock (magma) and comes out with volcanic eruption.

• The spacecraft was orbiting around the Moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for chemical, mineralogical and photogeologic mapping of the Moon.
• After the successful completion of all the major mission objectives, the orbit has been raised to 200 km during May 2009.
• The satellite made more than 3400 orbits around the Moon and the mission was concluded when the communication with the spacecraft was lost on 29 August 2009.
• Recently, by the help of new technological application of interplanetary radar, NASA scientists have found that India’s first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which was considered lost is still orbiting the Moon.

E-tattoos to help monitor health

Chinese scientists have developed skin-like electronic tattoos, that can be used to monitor health parameters such as blood pressure and body temperature in real time.

• E-skin refers to thin, flexible and stretchable electronic material that mimics human skin and can sense pressure, temperature and stretch.
• It is graphene-based and can be easily transferred onto various surfaces such as the human skin, leaves and silk.
• It could also be attached to masks and throats to measure body signals such as breathing, heartbeat and voice.
• It exhibits high sensitivity and long-term stability. It can withstand higher temperatures and is comfortable to wear as well.
• The pattern of the graphene-based electronic skin can be personalised by the help of laser scribing technology, a feature that will help future commercialisation.

Graphene

• It is a carbon material that is one atom thick. Its thin composition and high conductivity means it can be used in applications ranging from miniaturised electronics to biomedical devices like computers, solar panels, batteries, sensors and other devices.
• Other properties of Graphene are:
  • Lowest resistivity substance known at room temperature.
  • High thermal stability.
  • High elasticity.
  • High electrical conductivity.
  • Electron mobility is high at room temperature.
  • Recently scientists developed Graphene from Soybean using “GraphAir” technology which is fast,simple, safe, and potentially scalable method. Until now, the high cost of graphene production has been the major roadblock in its commercialisation
  • Graphene oxide (GO) membranes can be used to filter common salt from seawater.

Important Facts for Prelims (6th August 2018)

Andhra Pradesh is Front-Runner in Energy Efficiency

• Andhra Pradesh has emerged the front-runner in the field of energy efficiency according to the States’ Energy Efficiency Preparedness Index (SEEPI) released by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and NITI Aayog.
• The World Bank has already ranked A.P. No. 1 in Energy Efficiency Implementation Readiness, followed by Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.
• Andhra Pradesh is ahead of other States in the race to the top by performing exceedingly well on the energy efficiency front in municipalities and agriculture in demand-side management and domestic/buildings sector.

Read more about state energy efficiency index...

Indian Star Tortoises

• 1,125 endangered Indian Star Tortoises (Geochelone elegans), which were meant to be smuggled to Bangladesh, were seized on board a train at the city railway station.
• Indian Star Tortoises are categorised as ‘Vulnerable’ in the red list of endangered species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• The species are also listed in the Schedule IV of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and are prohibited from export under the Foreign Trade Policy.
• The species are liable for confiscation under the Customs Act, 1962.
• Indian Star Tortoises are found in three broad areas of geographic occurrence: northwestern India (Gujarat, Rajasthan) and adjoining southeastern Pakistan; eastern and southern areas from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and eastern Karnataka to Odisha (Orissa); and throughout Sri Lanka.
• The illegal wildlife trade of the species is done to meet the increasing international demand for use as ‘exotic pets’.