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

China’s Tiangong Space Station 

Context: Three Chinese astronauts docked at the country’s space station on Sunday.

About China’s Space Station:

• The space station will operate in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 340-450 km above Earth’s surface.
• Tiangong, which means“heavenly palace”, is expected to become fully operational by the end of the year and is set to be operational for at least 10-15 years

Significance of the space station:

• The low orbit space station would be the country’s eye from the sky, providing round the clock bird’s-eye view for its astronauts on the rest of the world.
• It shall aid China’s aim to become a major space power by 2030.
• It replicates the International Space Station (ISS), from which China was excluded.

Comparing with the International Space Station:

The ISS programme is a joint project between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada)

• ISS is now the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit. The Chinese station will be smaller and similar in design, meaning it will have limited capacity for astronauts (three versus six on ISS).
• The completed station will be similar to the Soviet Mir station that orbited Earth from the 1980s until 2001
  

Concerns about Chinese monopoly?

• Until the gateway is launched, however, Tiangong – which will be placed in lower Earth orbit and have an expected life of 15 years – will probably remain the only functioning space station. Some worry this makes it a security threat, arguing its science modules could be easily converted for military purposes, such as spying on countries.

Others planned space stations:

• Lunar Gateway: involving four of the ISS partner agencies: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It is planned to be both the first space station beyond low Earth orbit and the first space station to orbit the Moon.
• The Russian Orbital Service Station is scheduled to begin construction in 2025.
• Starlab is the name given to the planned LEO space station designed by Nanoracks for commercial space activities uses.
• Indian Human Spaceflight Programme: India plans to deploy a 20-tonne space station as a follow-up programme of the Gaganyaan mission, it will be deployed in 5–7 years after the completion of the Gaganyaan project.

Since China’s Tiangong Space Station is a part of Space Research , here's a document to clear your concepts on the same here: Space Research in India

India’s first Biotech Startup Expo 2022

Why in News?

Recently, Prime Minister has inaugurated the Biotech Startup Expo - 2022.

• It is a reflection of the expansive growth of the biotech sector in the country.

What are the Key Highlights of the Expo?

• About:
  • The Biotech Startup Expo 2022 will provide a common platform to connect investors, entrepreneurs, scientists, researchers, industry leaders, manufacturers, bio-incubators, regulators and government officials.
  • The expo is being organised by the Department of Biotechnology and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) to mark the completion of ten years of BIRAC.
  • It will showcase applications of biotechnology in various fields including healthcare, agriculture, genomics, clean energy, biopharma, industrial biotechnology and waste-to-value.
• Theme: 'Biotech Startup Innovations: Towards AatmaNirbhar Bharat'.

What is the Status of Biotech Sector?

• About:
  • India is among the top 12 destinations for biotechnology globally and 3rd largest biotechnology destination in the Asia Pacific region.
  • The country is also the world’s third-largest producer of recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine and second-largest producer of BT cotton (genetically modified pest resistant plant cotton).
  • India’s Biotech sector is categorised into Biopharmaceuticals, BioIndustrial, Bioagriculture, BioIT & BioServices.
• Statistics:
  • The Indian bio-economy grew from USD 62.5 billion in 2019 to USD 70.2 billion in 2020 at a growth rate of 12.3%.
  • As of 2021, India’s biotech industry clocks in about USD 12 billion in annual revenue.
• Potential of Biotechnology
  • Multi-Faceted Domain: Biotechnology is a multi-faceted domain encompassing applications in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, scientific discoveries, etc. The biotech sector can be broadly divided into five major segments:
    (i) Biopharma
    (ii) Bio-agriculture
    (iii) Bio-services
    (iv) Bio-industrial Applications
    (v) Bioinformatic
• Growing Biotech Start-ups: As one of India's pioneering achievements in biotechnology, the sector employs the best minds and contributes to the development of generic and affordable medicines.
• Currently, there are over 2,700 biotech start-ups and are expected to touch the 10,000-mark by 2024.
• Role of BIRAC: Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), established under the Department of Biotechnology in 2012, continues to play a crucial role in the development of the biotech sector in India..
• Associated Challenges:
  • Structural Issues: Considering that manufacturing in the biopharma sector is capital intensive, such investments have been suboptimal in India due to limited access to capital, inadequate infrastructure and complex and ever-evolving regulatory framework.
    As Biotechnology products and solutions often require ethical and regulatory clearance, making the process long, expensive and cumbersome.
• Heavily Public Sector Dominated: Compared to the developed economies (the United States), biotechnology research in India is mainly funded by the public exchequer.
• Unless the private sector starts supporting applied research and engages with academic institutions, the innovation in applied and translational biotechnology will be minimal.

Way Forward

• Given the long history of diseases in India, the country has accumulated years of experience and scientific knowledge to prevent and treat them. India is working to boost the biotechnology sector under various flagship programmes such as 'Make in India' and 'Start-up India'.
• Increase in the number of biotech incubators will boost research and promote growth of start-ups, which is critical for the success of the Indian biotech industry.
• The favourable location of the biotech hubs will depend on critical factors like research and technology development competence, market, industry policies, infrastructure, investments.

To read more information on this topic:

• Introduction to Biotechnology
• Applications of Biotechnology

PD1 Therapy for Cancer

In News

• Recently in a medical trial, 12 patients in the United States (US) were completely cured of rectal cancer without requiring any surgery or chemotherapy.

About the Study

• Monoclonal Antibody: The trial used a monoclonal antibody called dostarlimab every three weeks for six months for the treatment of a particular kind of stage two or three rectal cancer.
  • Dostarlimab is an experimental drug. It contains laboratory-produced molecules.
  • It acts as substitute antibodies. It is sold under the brand name Jemperli.
• Findings: 
  • It could completely cure the patients with a particular kind of rectal cancer called ‘mismatch repair deficient’ cancer”.
  • All 12 patients had completed the treatment and were followed for six to 25 months after.
  • No cases of progression or recurrence had been reported during the follow-up.
  • The response too was rapid, with symptoms resolving in 81% of the patients within nine weeks of starting the therapy.

How does this drug cure?

PD1 Protein used: It is a protein that regulates immune function and can sometimes keep T cells from killing cancer cells. 

• The therapy in the trial used PD1 blockades, allowing T cells to kill cancer cells. 
• The immunotherapy belongs to this category called PD1 blockades that are now recommended for the treatment of such cancers rather than chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
  
• Mismatch Repair Deficient Cancer: It is most common among colorectal, gastrointestinal, and endometrial cancers. 
  • Patients suffering from this condition lack the genes to correct typos in the DNA that occur naturally while cells make copies.
• The anomalies in the DNA: It results in cancerous growths in patients with mismatch repair deficient cancers. 
• India has a couple of PD1 blockades available, although not the one used for this study.

Significance

• Eliminating other treatments can improve a patient’s quality of life by preserving fertility, sexual health, and bladder and bowel functions.
• Earlier, this therapy was used post-surgery, but the study has shown that a surgery may not be required.
• Although the therapy is usually used for cancers that have metastasis (spread to locations other than where the cancer formed), it is now recommended for all mismatch repair deficient cancers as they result in quicker improvement and lesser toxicity as compared to traditional chemo and radiotherapy. 

Issues

• Cost is believed to be a major hurdle: The problem with immunotherapies is that they are expensive and unaffordable for most people in India, and certainly for those coming to AIIMS. A genetic test can also cost up to Rs 30,000, the patients here cannot afford all this.
• Surgeries anyway not needed: The patients can be well managed with chemotherapy and radiotherapy as well. Around 10 to 15% of cancer patients actually do not need surgeries.
• Precision medicine, such as using particular immunotherapy drugs for particular types of cancers, is still at a nascent stage in India. 

Way Ahead

• More research needs to be conducted for cancer treatment with the help of immunotherapy alone.
• Also, for cancer treatment, the field of radiation oncology is showing satisfactory results.
• People need to be guided properly to address myths and misinformation associated with radiation therapy.

Since , PD1 Therapy for Cancer is related to health and medicine , here's a document to clear your concepts on the same here:

• Pathological Conditions
• Fundamentals of Medicine, Causes of Disease

Critical Information Infrastructure

Why in News? 

• Recently, the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has declared IT (Information Technology) resources of ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and NPCI(National Payments Corporation of India) as ‘critical information infrastructure

What is Critical Information Infrastructure (CIC)?

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 explicitly gives definition of CIC.
• It defines CIC as a computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety.
• It basically aims to protect the digital assets.
• The government, under the Act, has the power to declare any data, database, IT network or communications infrastructure as CII.
• Any person who secures access or attempts to secure access to a protected system in violation of the law can be punished with a jail term of up to 10 years.

Why is CII classification and protection necessary?

• IT resources form the backbone of countless critical operations in a country’s infrastructure.
• Given their interconnectedness, disruptions can have a cascading effect across sectors.

What led to the classification of CICs?

• In 2007, a wave of denial-of-service attacks, allegedly from Russian IP addresses, hit major Estonian banks, government bodies – ministries and parliament, and media outlets.
• It was cyber aggression of the kind that the world had not seen before.
• The attacks played havoc in one of the most networked countries in the world for almost three weeks.

Recent incidents of CIC incapacitation

• In October, 2020 as India battled the pandemic, the electric grid supply to Mumbai suddenly stopped.
• It hit the mega city’s hospitals, trains and businesses.
• Later, a study by a US firm claimed that this power outage could have been a cyber-attack, allegedly from a China-linked group.
• The government, however, was quick to deny any cyber-attack in Mumbai. But prospects cannot be denied.
• The incident underlined the possibility of hostile state and non-state actors probing internet-dependent critical systems in other countries, and the necessity to fortify such assets.

How are CIIs protected in India?

• Created in January 2014, the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) is the nodal agency.
• It takes all measures to protect the nation’s critical information infrastructure.
• It is mandated to guard CIIs from “unauthorized access, modification, use, disclosure, disruption, incapacitation or distraction”.
• NCIIPC monitors and forecasts national-level threats to CII for policy guidance, expertise sharing and situational awareness for early warning or alerts.

Since, Critical Information Infrastructure is related to IT sector, here's a document to clear your concepts on the same here:  India in IT & Computer Science

India’s First Liquid Mirror Telescope

Why in News?

• Recently, Devasthal Observatory campus owned by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital in Uttarakhand has set-up the International Liquid-Mirror Telescope (ILMT).

What are the Key Highlights about ILMT?

• It has become the world's first Liquid-Mirror Telescope (LMT) to be commissioned for astronomy and also one of its kind to be operational anywhere in the world.
• Asteroids, supernovae, space debris and all other celestial objects will be observed using ILMT from an altitude of 2,450 metres in the Himalayas.
• Previously built telescopes either tracked satellites or were deployed for military purposes.
• ILMT will be the third telescope facility to come up at Devasthal.
  • Devasthal is one of the world’s original sites for obtaining astronomical observations.
  • Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) and Devasthal Fast Optical Telescope (DFOT) are the other two telescope facilities at Devasthal.
• In October 2022, full-scale scientific operations of ILMT will be started.
• It will be working along with India’s largest operating Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT).
• The countries involved in ILMT’s development are India, Belgium, Canada, Poland and Uzbekistan.

How is LMT Different from Conventional Telescope?

• A LMT is a stationary telescope whereas a conventional telescope moves along the direction of the object of interest in the sky.
• A LMT will survey and capture any and all possible celestial objects such as stars, galaxies, supernovae explosions, asteroids and even space debris. However, a conventional captures just a piece of sky at a given point of time.
• LMT comprises mirrors with a reflective liquid (ILMT has mercury as reflective liquid). On the other hand, a conventional telescope uses highly-polished glass mirrors.
• While ILMT will be capturing images of the sky on all nights, conventional telescopes observe specific objects in the sky for fixed hours only.

What is the Significance of ILMT?

• Enormous amount of data (10-15 GB/night) will be generated. This will be significant for the global scientific communities.
• Latest computational tools, like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and big data analytics will be deployed for screening, processing and analyzing the data.
• Selected data can be used as a base data for carrying out further focused research using spectrographs, near-Infrared spectrograph mounted on the in-house DOT.