Science & Technology: August 2022 Current Affairs | Science & Technology for UPSC CSE PDF Download

Call for Applications for AIC and AICC: NITI Aayog

What is the Call for Applications?

• The call for applications is a step to expand the current ecosystem of incubators and to provide them with access to global benchmarks and best practices.
• Both the programs envision creating and supporting the innovative ecosystem in the country by establishing world-class institutions which shall help budding entrepreneurs of the country.
• These AICs and ACICs will play a pivotal role in enriching the start-up and entrepreneurship ecosystem of India and echo the anthem of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

What is Atal Incubation Centre?

• AIC is an initiative of the AIM, NITI Aayog to foster innovation and entrepreneurial spirit while creating a supportive ecosystem for start-ups and entrepreneurs in India.
• Each AIC is supported with a grant of up to INR 10 crores over a period of 5 years.
• Since 2016, AIM has established 68 Atal Incubation Centres across 18 states and 3 UTs which have supported more than 2700 startups.

What is Atal Community Innovation Centre?

• ACIC is envisaged to serve the unserved/underserved areas of the country with respect to the start-up and innovation ecosystem.
• Each ACIC is supported with a grant of up to INR 2.5 crores over a period of 5 years.
• AIM has established 14 Atal Community Innovation Centres across the country.

What is Atal Innovation Mission?

• About:
  • AIM is Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
  • Its objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, create awareness and create an umbrella structure to oversee the innovation ecosystem of the country.
• Major Initiatives:
  • Atal Tinkering Labs: Creating problem solving mindset across schools in India.
  • Atal New India Challenges: Fostering product innovations and aligning them to the needs of various sectors/ministries.
  • Mentor India Campaign: A national mentor network in collaboration with the public sector, corporates and institutions, to support all the initiatives of the mission.
  • Atal Research and Innovation for Small Enterprises (ARISE): To stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry.

African Swine Fever in India

Recently, African Swine Fever has been confirmed for the first time, at a private pig farm in in Kerala, after more than 15 pigs on the farm had died due to the disease in the last ten days.

What is African Swine Fever?

• About:
  • It is a highly contagious and fatal animal disease that infects and leads to an acute form of hemorrhagic fever in domestic and wild pigs.
  • Other manifestations of the disease include:
    (i) High fever
    (ii) Depression
    (iii) Anorexia
    (iv) Loss of appetite
    (v) Hemorrhages in the skin
    (vi) Vomiting and diarrhoea among others.
• It was first detected in Africa in the 1920s.
  • Historically, outbreaks have been reported in Africa and parts of Europe, South America, and the Caribbean.
  • However, since 2007, the disease has been reported in multiple countries across Africa, Asia and Europe, in both domestic and wild pigs.
  • The mortality is close to 95% - 100% and since the fever has no cure, the only way to stop its spread is by culling the animals.
  • ASF is not a threat to human beings since it only spreads from animals to other animals.
  • ASF is a disease listed in the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)’s Terrestrial Animal Health Code.
• Clinical Signs:
  • The clinical signs of ASF may occur in chronic, sub-acute or acute form.
  • In the acute form pigs develop a high temperature (40.5 degrees C or 105 degrees F), then become dull and go off their food.
  • Other symptoms can vary but will include some or all of the following:
    (i) Vomiting
    (ii) Diarrhoea (sometimes bloody)
    (iii) Reddening or darkening of the skin, particularly ears and snout
    (iv) Gummed up eyes
    (v) Laboured breathing and coughing
    (vi) Abortion, still births and weak litters
    (vii) Weakness and unwillingness to stand
• Transmission:
  • Direct contact with infected pigs, faeces or body fluids.
  • Indirect contact via fomites such as equipment, vehicles or people who work with pigs between pig farms with ineffective biosecurity.
  • Pigs eating infected pig meat or meat products.
  • Biological vectors - ticks of the species Ornithodoros.

What is Classical Swine Fever?

• CSF, also known as Hog Cholera, is an important disease of pigs.
• It is one of the most economically-damaging pandemic viral diseases of pigs in the world.
• It is caused by a virus of the genus Pestivirus of the family Flaviviridae, which is closely related to the viruses that cause bovine viral diarrhoea in cattle and border disease in sheep.
• Mortality rate of Classical Swine Fever is 100%.
• Recently, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute IVRI developed a Cell Culture CSF Vaccine (live attenuated) using the Lapinized Vaccine Virus from foreign strain.
  • The new vaccine has been found to induce protective immunity from day 14 of the Vaccination till 18 Months.

Booster Dose: Corbevax  

• Corbevax is still awaiting World Health Organisation’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL).
• Until now, the third dose had to be the same vaccine that was used for the first and second doses.
• The decision comes after India’s drug regulator approved Corbevax as a heterologous Covid booster dose for individuals aged 18 years.

What is WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL)?

• EUL is a risk-based procedure for assessing and listing unlicensed vaccines, therapeutics and in-vitro diagnostics with the ultimate aim of expediting the availability of products to people affected by a public health emergency.
• International travel in many countries requires people to get a vaccine that’s on the WHO’s approved list.

What do we know about the Corbevax Vaccine?

• About:
  • Corbevax is India’s first indigenously developed Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) protein sub-unit vaccine against Covid, with two doses scheduled 28 days apart.
  • It can be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius, which is best suited for India’s requirements.
• Working Process:
  • Corbevax is a “recombinant protein sub-unit” vaccine, which means it is made up of a specific part of SARS-CoV-2: the spike protein on the virus’s surface.
  • The spike protein allows the virus to enter the cells in the body so that it can replicate and cause disease.
  • However, when this protein alone is given to the body, it is not expected to be harmful as the rest of the virus is absent.
  • The body is expected to develop an immune response against the injected spike protein.
  • Once the human immune system recognises the protein, it produces antibodies as white blood cells to fight the infection.
  • Therefore, when the real virus attempts to infect the body, it will already have an immune response ready that will make it unlikely for the person to fall severely ill.

What are other types of Vaccines?

• Inactivated vaccines:
  • Inactivated vaccines use the killed version of the germ that causes a disease.
  • Vaccines of this type are created by inactivating a pathogen, typically using heat or chemicals such as formaldehyde or formalin.
  • This destroys the pathogen’s ability to replicate, but keeps it “intact” so that the immune system can still recognize it. (“Inactivated” is generally used rather than “killed” to refer to viral vaccines of this type, as viruses are generally not considered to be alive.)
• Live-attenuated Vaccines:
  • Live vaccines use a weakened (or attenuated) form of the germ that causes a disease.
  • Because these vaccines are so similar to the natural infection that they help prevent, they create a strong and long-lasting immune response.
• Messenger (m) RNA Vaccines:
  • mRNA vaccines make proteins in order to trigger an immune response. mRNA vaccines have several benefits compared to other types of vaccines, including shorter manufacturing times, because they do not contain a live virus, no risk of causing disease in the person getting vaccinated.
  • The vaccines are used to protect against: Covid-19.
• Toxoid Vaccines:
  • They use a toxin (harmful product) made by the germ that causes a disease.
  • They create immunity to the parts of the germ that cause a disease instead of the germ itself. That means the immune response is targeted to the toxin instead of the whole germ.
  • Viral Vector Vaccines:
  • Viral vector vaccines use a modified version of a different virus as a vector to deliver protection.
  • Several different viruses have been used as vectors, including influenza, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), measles virus, and adenovirus, which causes the common cold.

Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV)

• However, the mission failed to place the satellites in their required orbits, and the satellites, as they were already detached from the launch vehicle, were lost.

What is a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle?

• About:
  • Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) is a three stage Launch Vehicle configured with three Solid Propulsion Stages and a liquid propulsion-based Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) as a terminal stage.
  • SSLV is 2m in diameter and 34m in length with a lift-off weight of around 120 tonnes.
  • SSLV is capable of launching 500kg satellites in 500km planar orbit from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC).
• Key Features:
  • Low cost,
  • Low turn-around time,
  • Flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites,
  • Launch demand feasibility,
  • Minimal launch infrastructure requirements, etc.
• Significance:
  • The Era of small satellites:
    (i) Earlier, the bigger satellite payloads were given importance, but as the sector grew many players emerged like Businesses, government agencies, universities, and laboratories began to send satellites.
    (ii) Mostly all of them fall in the category of small satellites.
• The Rise in Demand:
  • The demand for the launch of small satellites has increased at a rapid pace in the last eight to ten years, due to the ever-growing need for space-based data, communication, surveillance, and commerce.
• Saves cost:
  • Satellite manufacturers and operators do not have the luxury of waiting months for space on a rocket or paying exorbitant trip charges.
  • Therefore, Organizations are increasingly developing a constellation of satellites in space.
  • Projects like SpaceX's Starlink and One Web are assembling a constellation of hundreds of satellites.
• Business opportunity:
  • With the rise in demand, the rockets could be launched frequently with less cost, this provides a business opportunity for space agencies like ISRO to tap the potential of the sector as most of the demand comes from companies that are launching satellites for commercial purposes.

What is the SSLV-D1/EOS-02 Mission?

• It was aimed at garnering a larger pie in the small launch vehicles market, as it could place the satellites into Low Earth Orbit.
• It was carrying the two satellites on board the rocket –
• The primary EOS-2 Earth-observing satellite- EOS-02 is an earth observation satellite designed and realised by ISRO.
• This microsat series satellite offers advanced optical remote sensing operating in infra-red band with high spatial resolution.
• The secondary AzaadiSAT student satellite- It is an 8U Cubesat weighing around 8 kg.
• It carries 75 different payloads each weighing around 50 grams and conducts femto-experiments.
• It carried out tiny experiments which would have measured the ionising radiation in its orbit and also a transponder which worked in the ham radio frequency to enable amateur operators to access it.
• Girl students from rural regions across the country were provided guidance to build these payloads.
• The payloads are integrated by the student team of “Space Kidz India”.

What was the Issue?

• The problem appeared to be the SSLV’s terminal stage, called the velocity trimming module (VTM).
• According to the launch profile, the VTM was supposed to have burnt for 20 seconds at 653 seconds after launch.
• However, it burnt for only 0.1 seconds, denying the rocket the requisite altitude boost.
• The two satellites separated from the vehicle after the VTM burned, there was a malfunctioning of a sensor which resulted in placing the satellites in an elliptical orbit, rather than a circular orbit.
• According to ISRO, all the stages performed normally, both the satellites were injected. But the orbit achieved was less than expected, which makes it unstable.

What is the Difference between Circular and Elliptical Orbits?

• Elliptical Orbits:
  • Mostly objects such as satellites and spacecrafts are put in elliptical orbits only temporarily.
  • They are then either pushed up to circular orbits at a greater height or the acceleration is increased until the trajectory changes from an ellipse to a hyperbola and the spacecraft escapes the gravity of the Earth in order to move further into space — for example, to the Moon or Mars or further away.
• Circular Orbits:
  • Satellites that orbit the Earth are mostly placed in circular orbits.
  • One reason is that if the satellite is used for imaging the Earth, it is easier if it has a fixed distance from the Earth.
  • If the distance keeps changing as in an elliptical orbit, keeping the cameras focused can become complicated

To read more information on Space research

• Space Research in India

OTEC Plant in Lakshadweep

• The plant will power the one lakh liter per day low temperature thermal desalination plant, which converts seawater into potable water.
• The plant is the first of its kind in the world as it will generate drinking water from sea water using indigenous technology, green energy and environmentally friendly processes.

What is Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion?

• About:
  • Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a process for producing energy by harnessing the temperature differences (thermal gradients) between ocean surface waters and deep ocean waters.
  • Oceans are huge heat reservoirs as they cover almost 70% of Earth’s surface.
  • Researchers focus on two types of OTEC technologies-
  • Closed cycle method - where a working fluid (ammonia) is pumped through a heat exchanger for evaporation and the steam runs a turbine.
  • The vapour is turned back to fluid (condensation) by the cold water found at the depths of the ocean where it returns to the heat exchanger.
  • Open cycle method - where the warm surface water is pressurized in a vacuum chamber and converted to steam which runs the turbine. The steam is then condensed using cold ocean water from lower depths.
• Historical perspective:
  • India initially had planned to set up an OTEC plant way back in 1980, off the Tamil Nadu coast. However, with the foreign vendor closing down its operation, it had to be abandoned.
  • India’s OTEC Potential:
  • As India is geographically well-placed to generate ocean thermal energy, with around 2000 kms of coast length along the South Indian coast, where a temperature difference of above 20°C is available throughout the year.
  • The total OTEC potential around India is estimated as 180,000 MW, considering 40% of gross power for parasitic losses.

How does an OTEC Plant Work?

• About:
  • As the energy from the sun heats the surface water of the ocean. In tropical regions, surface water can be much warmer than deep water.
  • This temperature difference can be used to produce electricity and desalinate ocean water.
  • Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) systems use a temperature difference (of at least 77°F) to power a turbine to produce electricity.
  • Warm surface water is pumped through an evaporator containing a working fluid. The vaporized fluid drives a turbine/generator.
  • Then the vaporized fluid is turned back to a liquid in a condenser cooled with cold ocean water pumped from deeper into the ocean.
  • OTEC systems use seawater as the working fluid and can use condensed water to produce desalinated water.
• Significance:
  • Two of the biggest advantages of OTEC are that it produces clean environmentally friendly renewable energy and, unlike solar plants which can't work at night and wind turbines which only work when it's windy, OTEC can produce energy at all times.

What are the Related Recent Initiatives of the Government?

• Deep Sea Mining:
  • The MoES is developing technologies for mining deep sea resources like polymetallic nodules from the Central Indian Ocean at a water depth of 5,500 meters.
• Weather Forecasting:
  • The ministry is also working on introducing ocean climate change advisory services for climate risk assessment due to sea level rise; cyclone intensity and frequency; storm surges and wind waves; biogeochemistry, and changing harmful algal blooms in the coastal waters of India.
• Deep Ocean Mission:
  • MoES is trying to design and develop a prototype crewed submersible rated for 6,000 meters of water depth under the Deep Ocean Mission.
  • It will include technologies for underwater vehicles and underwater robotics.
• DNA Bank:
  • There efforts are being made to improve the detection, sampling and DNA storage of benthic fauna of the northern Indian Ocean through systematic sampling using a remotely operated vehicle.